Echinocereus stramineus of the Jarilla Mountains

[hegar]

Hello Cactus Lovers,
today a small group of six people did drive to the Jarilla Mountains near Orogrande, New Mexico (see also topic covering the hybrid claret cup cactus (Echinocereus coccineus x E. dasyacanthus et. al.). The weather was beautiful, with a clear sky, light wind, and the temperature being in the 80 degree range. I am not sure whether or not we did hit 86 degrees F (30 degrees C).
First we did scout the scenery and were disappointed, because we could not find any flowering E. stramineus plants. Those cacti are commonly called "beehive cactus" and their fruit is named "strawberry pitahaya", because supposedly it smells and tastes like strawberry. Here is a short rundown of what we did find.
First a few scenery images. We did not see many animals, but these two Mourning Dove nestlings were perfectly quiet when our guide spotted them. He had noticed the mother bird leave the nest and act, as if it was injured. This is a trick by the parent bird to lure the interloper away from the nest. I also spotted a lizard, but it did get away before I had the camera ready. Also, some of us saw a "horned lizard". Some people call these animals "horny toads", because they are fat and squatty. That one and a snake, which someone told us was a rat snake had disappeared, before I could get to them.
We did see a number of flowers in bloom. Mostly some wild Asters were flowering and Lepidium sp., a member of the Brassicaceae (mustard) plant family. I took a picture of a plant that one of the group called "velcro flower". Another plant that had sprung up and was creeping along the ground was a wild gourd. Toward the end of the trip someone pointed out a dry stem of a plant with large spiny capsules. I did recognize this plant as Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium). In German it is named "Stechapfel", which translates to "Prickly apple".
I am going to post these images now and shall post the others in succession.

Harald

[hegar]

Here comes the next small batch of images. This one covers succulents growing with cacti in the Jarilla Mountains of New Mexico.
First is a plant that will produce leaves, if there has been enough rainfall. Otherwise it flowers on bare stems and may have leaves during the rainy part of the year, which is the summer months June, July and August. This plant does have nice blossoms that hummingbirds love. It is considered a valuable ornamental in desert plantings and it can grow pretty tall. There is one on the property of the University of El Paso, Texas that must be two to three stories high. Its name is Fouquieria splendens and its common name is "ocotillo".
Next is a pretty agave (Agave neomexicana). It does form nice round rosettes of silvery green leaves.
Another plant that by its height oftentimes dominates the desert landscape is some kind of yucca. I do not know the species name. This plant does produce a stem and can take on a tree-like look. There is another yucca present here that grows lower. That one is called the banana yucca.
The last two images show a plant that could be mistaken for a yucca or agave. However, its leaves are more flexible and longer. In addition they are armed with "teeth", which can scratch you quite well. The leaves of this plant I have seen used in tying together broom straw when manufacturing a straw broom. The teeth interlock, making a durable tie-down of the straw pieces possible. The plant's scientific genus name is Dasylirion and the locals call it sotol.

Harald

[hegar]

Now I am finally able to start with the cacti.
The only ones in full flower were the prickly pears. The (Cylindr)opuntia imbricata had no flowers though. Next to it the banana yucca (Yucca baccata) also was not flowering. However, two kinds of prickly pear, in my opinion Opuntia camanchica and O. engelmannii did have a few blooms.
I did spot a few Mammillaria grahami plants with their fish-hook central spines. There were also a good number of Echinocactus horizonthalonius plants present, including one nice group of five and one that may have flowered recently. We did have some rain and hailstorms on the Saturday before Easter. E. horizonthalonius does respond to rain with producing a flower, usually within 14 days after the precipitation. Another cactus that was present, although not in large numbers was the claret cup (Echinocereus coccineus).
Another member of that genus was the New Mexico Rainbow (Echinocereus viridis ssp chloranthus). I only encountered one plant.
I did photograph a small cactus with long spines that I could not place. It might be a hybrid.
Well, that is it for this part of the thread. The next entries will all be showing Echinocereus stramineus plants in habitat.

Harald

[hegar]

Here is the last group of images. To our great dismay, we did find out, that the plants had already finished flowering. Also, it was evident, that not a record crop of blossoms had been produced. We did look all over on the slopes of the mountains, but could not find any fully open blossoms. I did spot a single flower on the way back to the pickup truck that was partially open. However, it was in an almost inaccessible steep incline and so I used my 20x zoom on the camera to take the last photo shown here.
As you can see, some of the mounds of the beehive cacti were pretty impressive. The biggest one is actually in danger of sliding off the slope whenever the next big rainfall hits. One image shows three populations of E. stramineus with the largest mound having yellowish spines, while the smaller mounds on each side have more silvery spines.
Despite not having been successful with the timing and thus not been able to see those magnificent huge pink-magenta flowers, the trip was well worth it. We all did enjoy ourselves and that was the most important thing about this outing.

Harald

[bluetexasbonnie]

Magnificent! What a wonderful walk-about.

[vlani]

Great trip! Love the enormous stramineus mounds!

[Ruud]

Hi Harald,
we didn't make it to Orogrande, instead of that we did Oliver Lee.
I did found more or less the same plants as you did in Orogrande, had a wonderfull time there.
We didn't find the Echinocereus roetterii in flower (they were there a lot) but the Echinocereus dasyacanthus and the Echinocactus were in full flower and the Echinocereus stramineus just started at the lower mesa. At litle higher elevation up the mountains they weren't yet in flower.
Later on i start a new topic with pics from other places we went during our holliday last two weeks.
Gr
Ruud from the Netherlands

[vlani]

Looks great Ruud! When did you go there?

[Ruud]

1 week ago, litle distance with Orogrande, big difference in flowering time?
GR
Ruud

[vlani]

Elevation may be? How high up those hills did you go?

[Ruud]

The elevation was between 3750 and 4700ft, i think that's about the same as Harald was, i see exactly the same plants as i spotted, maybe some difference in rainfall?
BTW Harald beautifull pics! Much nicer than most of mine. What elevation were you?
Gr
Ruud

[Arjen]

great presentation harald, ruud as well.
I'll be commenting on harald's.

lovely scenery shots and I am in awe of how you presented the plant diversity there.
the mounts of E. stramineus look very impressive, there must be hundred heads on some!
i specifically mean the single large group living on the edge, is that the one in risk of being washed down?
the single E. viridis ssp. chloranthus really makes me wonder if there are any more there, will it survive?
I would have loved to see a close up of the 'velcro plant' flower.
also love the ocotillo.

great show!

[hegar]

Thank you very much for your interest in my post, Ruud, Vlani, and Arjen. At least you, Ruud, did get to see some flowers on those bee hive/hay stack cacti.
You are correct, Ruud, with your assumption about the altitude above sea level being similar for your field trip versus mine. The Jarilla Mountains range in altitude from 4,260 to 5,200 feet. The foothills are at around 4,200 feet, while the surrounding hills are approximately 4,600 feet tall. The average height above sea level is 4,360 ft (1,321 meters). I am certain though, that we did not climb anything that was near 5,000 feet tall.
The huge clump of E. stramineus that looks like it could break apart and land on the dirt road, if either a heavy downpour occurs or some truck gets hold of it is growing on a slope which is very unstable. Even the "rocks" that are present are soft and porous and when I tried to climb uphill, the soil just gave way, even when I tried to step on a rock. It looks to me, as if some big trucks have already been up there and perhaps widened the dirt road. The area there consists to a large degree of land that is under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management. There are mining activities, mostly small scale, and claims staked out mostly for turquoise, although I heard, that some people are still prospecting for gold.
Not too long ago someone noticed, that whole sides of the hills were being dynamited, in order to extract low grade iron ore and export it to China. However, that commercial mining venture was stopped by an observant person who realized, that no impact assessment had been carried out prior to starting the operation. As far as I know, no large-scale mining is being done at this time. Untold rare and valuable plant and wildlife would be negatively affected by heavy truck traffic and surface destruction
Well, there are still a lot of cacti present in that area, but their numbers are dwindling. The New Mexico Rainbow was not very plentiful at that specific spot, but we most likely did overlook a few plants. I doubt, that it will decline to an "endangered" status any time soon. It is still one of the most commonly encountered cacti in this vicinity.

Harald