Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

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hegar
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Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Hello dear cactus friends,
last Saturday a very small group of cactus afficionados drove to Orogrande, New Mexico on our yearly pilgrimage to see the flowering Echinocereus hybrid cacti, a cross between Echinocereus dasyacanthus (Texas Rainbow Cactus) and Echinocereus coccineus ssp. rosei (Claret Cup Cactus). This cross is named Echinocereus x roetteri. In rare instances, one of the parent plants may also be Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp. chloranthus (New Mexico Rainbow Cactus).
The weather was nice: not too hot and sunny, with a little bit of wind. We arrived at our first location after a little less than a one hour drive. To our great disappointment, there were very few cacti in bloom. We came a good week too late and the hybrids had stopped flowering.
It was a little too early to try to find Echinocereus dasyacanthus in bloom, but we did see a few.
So, that was quite disappointing. I still got to photograph a few plants, including hybrids and collected some nice rocks. One of them may even contain some turquoise, which is being mined even to this day. Our local club is called the "El Paso Cactus and Rock Club". So, if we do not find cacti, almostr all of us also are interested in various minerals, which we can use for borders of our cactus plantings and place between cacti, in order to give them a little protection from the hot sun.
On the way back we did experience a little excitement due to the front tire of our big pick-up truck going flat!
Overall, I still did enjoy the trip, because the weather was beautiful and I love being on mountain slopes looking for anything of interest.
Just like in previous years, I am going to post a good number of scenery shots. You will get an idea, what the surroundings look like when one spends time in the Jarilla Mountains of Southern New Mexico.

Harald

On the first image, the mine tailings are to the upper left (orange brown area). Peter is our longtime guide, who has almost always been very good at predicting when these cacti would be in flower.
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hegar
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Today I am adding a few digital images of some of the plants growing alongside the cacti in Orogrande, NM. One of the nicest looking ones is the Agave neomexicana, with its beautiful symmetrical growth pattern showing off its wide, almost greyish-white colored leaves.
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There are also many other annual wildflowers, like this kind of Aster. The color yellow is predominant among that plant family.
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One cute, low-growing wildflower did show off its nice blossoms. According to one of my fellow cactus club members, this is either some kind of Geranium or a Boerhavia sp.
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Another plant, that is commonly found growing on the slopes of the Jarilla Mountains is the Feather Plume (Dalea plumosa). This plant belongs to the Fabaceae (Bean) plant family.
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Fallugia paradoxa (Apache Plume) is a member of the Roseaceae (rose) family. It produces simple white flowers, followed by many plume-like structures, which hold the seeds. At times it seems, like the plant is enveloped in smoke, the greyish to pink fluff, under which the seed is found.
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Fouqueria splendens (Ocotillo) is another nice desert dweller. The plant may flower with leaves present or without, depending on the amount of moisture in the soil. As you can see, the plants this year do not have leaves.
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The small, but beautiful flowers of a fragile looking Larkspur vine are climbing up the branches of a desert shrub.
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The main plant found in the desert of Orogrande is the creosote shrub (Larrea tridentate). After a rain, the leaves emit a strong pleasant odor, indicating that the desert air has been cleaned. To me the experience is something to behold. The leaves and yellow flowers are small and the plant looks a little unkempt.
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Last, but not least I want to show you a yucca plant that already had flowered and is in the process of producing seed in large pods.
I do not know, which yucca it is. Most likely not Yucca batata (banana yucca) or the soap tree yucca. It did have a tree-trunk like stem.
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hegar
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

This posting is going to show mostly cacti other than hybrid Echinocereus x roetteri.

Harald

First a few pictures of a robust looking cactus that looks nice, even when not in flower. It does have a greyish-blue green color and strong spines.
The common name is Eagle Claw Cactus and the scientific name Echinocactus horizonthalonius. This plant will flower several times, if there is enough moisture available in the soil.
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Another common cactus in the Jarilla Mountains near Orogrande, New Mexico is the Beehive Cactus. Another common name is Strawberry Pitahaya.
Its scientific name is Echinocereus stramineus. The fruit smells and tastes like strawberry and I consider this cactus to have the best tasting of all cactus fruits. These plants can form mounds with 100 or more stems. The flower is large, with a pink color. You can also see with these images taken in habitat, that the cacti grow rather close together. In one case, I noticed a big flower bud sticking out of the E. stramineus clump. I think, that a claret cup (Echinocereus coccineus) somehow got surrounded by the Beehive Cactus. I also noticed plants, that are growing out of spots that are way too small for even one fully grown plant! In one case I moved a rock, so that the growing cactus now has more room to grow and develop.
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While I was looking for flowering hybrid Echinocereus x roetteri plants, I spotted a yellow flower in the distance. I thought, that perhaps I had encountered a nice Texas Rainbow (Echinocereus dasyacanthus) plant. However, when I got closer, I realized, that it was a prickly pear. I believe, that it is an Opuntia camachica, but I am not 100% sure. So, here are two pictures of that plant.
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While wandering around on a rather rocky plateau, I came across many Mammillaria grahamii cacti. I had never before seen so many and I must admit, I went a little overboard taking images of these plants.
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I am closing this part of my presentation with a few digital images of the ever present prickly pear and cholla cacti. These two kinds of the Opuntia genus are true survivors in a desert environment. For a cactus grower they oftentimes are neglected. This may be, because prickly pear cacti do have tiny, barbed spines formed in clusters near the areoles (glochids) and the cholla is armed with normal-sized barbed spines. These will penetrate human skin and their removal is very painful indeed.
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hegar
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

I had to sign in again, because it looks like the site was not going to accept the last images. So, here they are, the prickly pear and cholla plants.
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rsales3
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by rsales3 »

Very nice habitat pictures Herald. It'a always a good time when we can get outdoors and explore. Hope the "flat tire" incident was not too serious. Thanks for sharing.
-Rei
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hegar
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Thank you very much for your comment, Rei. Except for a little delay - spending some time in the sun - the flat tire was inconsequential. The only person who was financially affected was the owner of the big pick-up truck. He most likely needed to purchase a new tire.
Well, I am going to attach a good number of digital images to this post. First, I am going to show the two "Parents" necessary to create a hybrid. The first one shown is Echinocereus coccineus ssp. rosei, one of the cacti commonly called "Claret Cup".
That is not an easy task, because - unless the plants are in flower - it is very difficult to tell, which one is the pure strain parent and which one an F1 hybrid. So the only ones, where a can say with 100% certainty, that the image shows a parent plant are the pictures showing the yellow-flowering Texas Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus). A claret cup hybrid may have the same flower color as the parent and also the same kind of spine characteristics. What can be used though is to check, whether or not only female functional features (style, stigma) are present or only male ones (stamen, anther).
When looking at the images, please notice, that the cacti are not growing nicely spaced out in the open. Oftentimes the seed germinated in locations, where initially the seedling would have a good "start in life", e.g. underneath a shrub (shade and moisture) or between a two rocks or in a rock fissure (moisture and protection from getting trampled, washed away, etc.). For the E. dayacanthus plants growing between two narrowly placed rocks I actually felt sorry. So I went ahead and moved one of these rocks, which was squeezing the larger plant, to the side (images E_dasyacanthus7 and 8).
I did then fill in the missing soil between the rocks, in order to have an even soil level.
By the way, if you want to see many additional digital images and more color variety, I have been placing the image output of the Orogrande, NM field trips for a good number of years, all under the "Cacti Places" tab.

Harald
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hegar
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Now I am finally posting the last set of digital images. Most likely all the cacti shown are hybrids. That is definitely true for the pink, the bi-colored, and the last cactus, which does have spines reminding me of E. dasyacantus and flowers that are more like those produced by E. coccineus ssp. rosei. However, they were larger than those found present on a claret cup.

Harald
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Spikylover
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Re: Orogrande, NM Hybrid Cacti 2017

Post by Spikylover »

OMG these are gorgeous! I wish i could drive up to something like that! Did you drive there this year?
Thanks for sharing these with us Harald
Rachel
Gardening with my mother and father in war ridden Syria
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