Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2015

[hegar]

On March 28th a group of local cactus friends took the annual tour to the Orogrande, New Mexico Jarilla Mountains, in order to enjoy the blossoms produced by the unique natural hybrid cacti found in that area.
Because every weekend in April is booked with one event or another - except April 18th - our guide decided to go earlier than usual.
The weather had been slightly warmer and we had received some rain, which indicated, that the cacti would be flowering earlier than in former years. Well, we did get there about one week or two too soon.
However, there were a few plants starting to bloom and I took many digital images of the environment (habitat) and the plants that we encountered there.
So, as in previous years, I shall start with the scenery and plants other than cacti.

Harald

[hegar]

We did spot one interesting animal, a reptile with the common name round-tailed horned lizard. When I stepped out of the vehicle, I noticed some movement nearby. The lizard then became motionless, blending into the environment so well, that I could not even spot it, once I had taken my camera out of its bag. Someone in the group decided to help me see the object, which made the lizard run into the closest small shrub. Two of the group members "ganged up" on the small creature and one of them caught it. We took a few photographs of it and it was then released. The only other larger animal I spotted was a pack rat. However it was too fast and ran into a clump of dead yuccas. So I did not get its picture taken. Well, here is a digital image of the lizard.

[hegar]

Now I am going to show you a few wild flowers that caught my interest. Some of these - the first and second, the latter being a desert chicory - were members of the composite plant family (Asteraceae), images 2 and 3 are in the mustard plant family (Brassicaceae), two depict a showy member of the bean family (Fabaceae) with the name Dalea formosa (common name Feather Plume), and the rest are unknown plants, but nevertheless attractive.

[hegar]

Next I am posting a few desert plants (shrubs) that are commonly found in the Orogrande area.
First is the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata). This plant is a nurse plant for cacti and provides food and shelter to the desert inhabitants. After a rain, there is a wonderful, refreshing odor that this plant emits.
Next are images of Dasylirion sp. (Spanish name "sotol"), followed by Fouquieria splendens in flower (Spanish name "ocotillo"), and finally pictures of some kind of Yucca sp., not sure about the species. We did not see another pretty succulent, Agave neomexicana, perhaps we did not go high enough into the mountain range this time around.

[hegar]

Now I finally get to the cacti. First, some of the kinds of prickly pear members (Opuntia or Cylindropuntia).
I am not good at identifying these to the species level. So, if someone who reads this thread and has an idea what these plants are correctly called, please let me know.
The first looks similar to my Opuntia arenaria and I have labeled it thus.
The second plant could be an Opuntia engelmannii, the third is an Opuntia imbricata (Spanish name "cholla"), and the last kind is Opuntia leptocaulis. One plant still had the bright red fruit. The other did not and perfectly blended in with its environment.

[hegar]

Some more of the variety of cacti and oftentimes their close proximity to each other. The first two images show several plants, the first depicts and Echinocactus horizonthalonius (Eagle Claw cactus), a prickly pear (Opuntia sp.), and a Fouquieria sp. (ocotillo).
The second does have a Texas Rainbow cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus), a clump of Strawberry Pitahaya or Beehive cactus (Echinocereus stramineus), and another Echinocactus horizonthalonius.
The next two images show a late-flowering Early Bloomer (Sclerocactus intertextus, syn. Echinomastus intertextus) and the last two images two Mammillaria spp. members, M. heyderi and M. lasiacantha respectively.

[hegar]

The next batch of images show one of the more common cacti growing in this area. It has the common name "Eagle Claw" and the scientific name Echinocactus horizonthalonius. Even when not in flower, the beautiful glaucous body color and the magnificent spines make this cactus worth having. It produces medium-sized bright pink, showy flowers and will bloom repeatedly during the growing season, if the conditions are right.

[hegar]

Another imposing cactus, because of the sometimes enormous number of stems is the Beehive cactus. When flowering, this plant is covered in large and beautiful deep pink flowers and does produce the most likely most delicious fruit of any cactus member. Because the fruit radiates the fragrance of strawberry fruit, one of the common names is "Strawberry Pitahaya". The fruit does not remain very long on the plants, because wildlife, especially birds love to feed on it. The last two images show rather large plants with many stems, but they are not the largest ones I have ever seen.

[hegar]

Now I am finally ready to show the parents and some of the offspring of the world-famous Orogrande hybrid cacti.
Most of the time, the parent plants are the Texas Rainbow cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus) and the Claret Cup cactus Echinocereus coccineus. The former produces a large blossom, that ranges in color from a faint yellow to bright lemon or even orange yellow. The flower is short-lived, but it is stunningly beautiful. The latter parent produces many more blossoms, which are of medium size and have a brick-red to fire-engine red color. These blossoms stay open day and night and each one will last one week or more. The hybrid plants can only be told apart - and sometimes only with difficulty - once the flower has opened. The hybrids produced in Orogrande may also have yet a third parental entity, the New Mexico Rainbow cactus (Echinocereus viridis ssp. chloranthus). The beehive cactus shown above most likely will not be part of the hybrids, because it does flower after the first two are done blooming.
I am starting out with the Texas Rainbow, Echinocereus dasyacanthus. The first image might well be a hybrid, because it does seem to have longer spines than usual, but the flower color would be required to make that determination. None of these plants were in bloom, because they flower toward the end of the blooming cycle for E. coccineus, i.e. one to two weeks after the claret cup begins flowering.
Images four and five do show what are most likely hybrids that will flower a few days after our visit. The last two pictures are of hybrid plants that do have a slightly different color than the other ones we did spot.

[hegar]

Now comes the biggest group of images, all definitely claret cup hybrids, because the flower color is in various shades of pink.

[A. Dean Stock]

The first Opuntia is likely O. trichophora and not O. arenaria based on size and shape of cladodes and spines. In addition, the habitat is wrong for O. arenaria. It is interesting that the variously colored claret cups in the Orogrande region have been interpreted as hybrids (and likely are) however, there are populations of Echinocereus mohavensis in Utah that have nearly the full range of flower colors from red to pink and even yellow without hybridization and there are populations of Echinocereus coccineus that also have several shades of pink to red and even pastel orange without hybridization. The Orogrande plants may be displaying similar flower color genetics as well as hybridization based variation in shape and spine arrangement.
Dean

[hegar]

All things must come to an end; and so it is also with this post. The last images except for the first two and the last two may all be either "pure-bred" claret cups (Echinocereus coccineus) or some form of hybrid. The color of the "unadulterated" claret cup is a bright orange-red to fire-engine red as mentioned before in this post dealing with claret-cup cactus hybrids.
I hope, that you enjoyed looking at the images, although the color combinations that are possible are not what they used to be. It seems like the rare colors were collected by someone. It also did not help, that we did not go into the higher elevations, where there is more diversity. This time around we stayed in an area that is easily accessible even to vehicles without four-wheel-drive and high clearance.
Perhaps next year I will be able to show a better selection of these magnificent plants.

Harald

[K.W.]

Great pictures!

Great colours!

Great cacti!


Thank You very much!!!





K.W.

[hegar]

Hallo K. W.,
Es freut mich wirklich, dass Sie Interesse an meinem Beitrag gezeigt haben. Ich gebe seit 2006 diese "Orogrande Reiseberichte" zum Besten, und habe schon des öfteren gedacht, dass es den Leuten wohl schon langsam "zum Hals heraushängt", wenn schon wieder sich ähnelnde Bilder der lokalen Fauna - und natürlich Flora - über dieselbe Gegend erscheinen.
Für mich ist jeder Ausflug in die Jarilla Mountains ein ganz besonderes Ereignis, dem ich das ganze Jahr schon erwartungsvoll entgegen sehe.
Vielen Dank für Ihren netten Kommentar. Ich glaube, ich werde auch nächstes Jahr wieder nach Orogrande zurückkehren und einen weiteren Bericht dann hier "posten" oder auf Deutsch "ins Netz stelle".
Wahrscheinlich werde ich auch dieses Jahr noch zur White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico mit einer Gruppe reisen und dann - falls ich einige Kakteen und Sukkulenten und interessante Tiere dort antreffe - ebenfalls einige Bilder auf diesem Forum veröffentlichen.

Harald

[K.W.]

Hallo K. W.,
Es freut mich wirklich, dass Sie Interesse an meinem Beitrag gezeigt haben.

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Harald

Guten Abend Harald,

ich finde es wunderbar Bilder aus dem Habitat anzuschauen!
Wünschte sehr ich könnte mich ins Auto setzen und solche (oder ähnliche ) Bilder von Kakteen machen.

In wenigen Tagen werde ich in Arizona sein. . . Dann wird fotographiert was die Kamera hergibt. . .

Noch einmal, vielen Dank für die wunderbaren Photos!!!
(das ist doch ganz etwas anderes als die sterilen Gewächshaus-Bilder unter immer optimalen (künstlichen) Bedingungen.)


Herzliche Grüße

K.W.