Peculiar Ferocactus seen in San Diego Co., CA

[BarryRice]

Hey Guys,

I'm finally getting around to working on my images taken this summer. During one trip in San Diego County (Highway S2, NW of Ocotillo), I found a barrel cactus that was quite odd. Unlike its companions, this Ferocactus cylindraceus was very, very pale. In fact, it seemed to lack any red pigmentation. Is this a common occurrence in this plant?

Ferocactus cylindraceus, very pale

feroccylin007.jpg (341.33 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Ferocactus cylindraceus, very pale

feroccylin008.jpg (79.79 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

I saw lots of other nice plants there; as for cacti the only other three notables were a very tall Ferocactus cylindraceus :

Tall Ferocactus cylindraceus

feroccylin006.jpg (47.58 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

A nice Echinocereus engelmannii:

Echinocereus engelmannii

echinengel010.jpg (333.92 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

A cute little Mammillaria dioica:

Mammillaria dioica

mammidioic001.jpg (283.97 KiB) Viewed 1926 times

Comments, though, on the strange pale Ferocactus are most appreciated. There were a few like this, and nearby there were the usual, red, dominant variant. If I recall correctly, these red ones were about the same size and the pale one...

Cheers

Barry

[Tony]

Interesting, I don't remember seeing one with completely white spines, but some of the plants in the foothills around Palm springs area are very blond as well.

[Snowcat]

Cacti protect themselves from excessive sunlight with white spines... Perhaps this form developed whilte spines to survive in open places with light ground which adds to the radiation.

[Saxicola]

Interesting find! I don't think there is anything dramatic going on here though. My guess is that this individual lacks the ability to produce betalins through some mutation.

[vlani]

Just North across the hills, off HW78, there is a great area densely covered with the local Fero. It generally goes as cylindraceus, but this population is unusually variable, in spines color and shape. Probably a hybrid population of some sort. Cactus trail is somewhere in that area, not the best spot to see Feros, but Feros there are of the same kind.

There are same white plants there as well.