Cold Water, Arizona

[autodikaktos]

Took a walk this past weekend during a storm to stretch my legs and get some photographs of a site that I had done some scouting around previously without a camera. Thought I would share some of the nicer photographs with the forum. In general I do a lot of backpacking and hiking and hope to share some other places in the future, or add to this one, as the overall area is quite large.

Note: I'm usually out hunting ruins and cactus at the same time. I come from a background of "keep it safe, keep it secret" after having seen some beautiful areas ransacked by the public. I'm not so very concerned with users on this forum being vandals, but I am concerned with writing key words that are searchable in Google by vandals. If this appears over-cautious or too vague, I apologize.


Echinocereus clumps about a chain down from the rim of the canyon. The greater area is rich with Echinocereus species and/or varieties. Unfortunately I can spend hours IDing one and then never come up with a definitive answer that I'm satisfied with. Apologies.

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Opuntia engelmannii, also off the rim by about a chain, overlooking a side canyon. This is a transition area, the canyon bottoms have lowland sonoran species that will intermix depending on the aspects of slopes and canyon walls with higher elevation species.

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Mixing my hobbies. O engelmannii again. It's the dominant Opuntia species, but there are also phaecantha and some chlorotica, and of course a lot of intermixing. Since I'm an amateur I usually just lean towards what it seems to most resemble.

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Ferocactus cylindraceus and another Echinocereus.

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Another Fero, closer up

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Opuntia and Petro. The culture from this area tended to build near the edges of canyons, and below in the cliffs etch their artwork. By doing a little careful scrambling you are rewarded with hundreds of drawings of multiple subjects. The meaning of most of which is lost to time.

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Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa, not that you can tell by the photograph really. Lighting was problematic during the off and on storm, but I still felt this one was beautiful in its own way.

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Agave chrysantha. This little fellow in the midst of the ruins is a feral remnant of the agave crops the people who built these structures used for food. Some existing feral populations are so differentiated due to ancient crop selection that they have become their own subspecies in the modern day.

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Yucca baccata, recovering from a fire. I've been kicking around the idea of creating a thread based solely on cactus/succulent response to fire, as the subject is in my wheelbase. I have quite a few photographs of different Echinocereus about 2 miles from this location coming back after a fire two seasons ago. If there is any interest.

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I found a new "wall" not too far from the ruin just pictured. Can't resist sharing a couple, even if there isn't a cactus next to it.

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Another petro, there is a cholla in the background though...

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Carnegiea gigantea, a little high up and exposed at this latitude for a Saguaro. A grotesque beauty, though. Sanctuary.

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Opuntia phaeacantha, near the river bottom.

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[autodikaktos]

...and three from another rain storm this past fall. This area is a few miles off from the one above. And in the past some forum members have shared their photographs from it.

Photogenic Opuntia, Shades of engelmannii, chlorotica, phaeacantha... wait, what was I doing? So confused all of a sudden.

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Mammillaria grahamii, with fruit and posing next to sandmat Euphorbia. They used to be called Chamaesyce.

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Phoradendron californicum, the desert mistletoe. These plants are fascinating, from their life-cycle to the way they've been utilized by animals and people.

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[ElieEstephane]

Amazing photos! Please do keep posting
The gloomy atmosphere really highlights the colors

[Aiko]

Very nice pictures indeed.

[tumamoc]

Nice. Those are some unusual looking Ferocactus cylindraceous. Are they typical of Cold Water?

[A_G_R]

Nice. Those are some unusual looking Ferocactus cylindraceous. Are they typical of Cold Water?

I noticed that too, they seem to be 'short spined' or maybe just fat from the winter rains?
Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos Autodikaktos!

[keith]

I saw ferocactus like that in Superior AZ near Boyce thomson arborietuim. I couldn't tell if they were cylindraceous or wizlenii ? they were not flowering.

nice pics

[hegar]

I too like those habitat shots, especially those with the big boulders in them. Some of those rock faces are rather dark (black). Is that perhaps because of soot formation due to a wildfire? I think, it is good, not to divulge the exact location of pictographs/petroglyphs as well as some of the cacti.
The former may be vandalized by immature people, while the latter could be dug up.
I do post every year my day trips into the Jarilla Mountains near Orogrande, New Mexico and the diversity of variously colored cacti has substantially decreased over time. The first time around in 2006 I did encounter the beautiful cactus I use as my avatar. On the way to the major population of the hybrid cacti you could see hybrids flowering right next to the dirt road. However, I believe it was last spring, I noticed a lot of what looked like gopher or rat holes where the cacti used to be. It seems that somebody came along and dug up a large number of these plants, perhaps in order to sell them, perhaps she/he wanted to have an instant cactus garden with mature plants.
The plants you have been photographing seem to be in remote areas and should not be as much threatened by illegal collecting.

Harald

[autodikaktos]

Thank you all very much. I should have some more up in the next few days as I've returned this weekend to the area.

As for the Ferocactus... I tried to do a little research using a couple of my books, the web, and my own photographs of other Feros, but don't really have an adequate response. I can tell you that in a canyon north of Phoenix about 20-25 miles away (as the crow flies) there are 2-3 that look identical in form to them, but I only have a photograph of one and it is quite blurry. Despite what on a map would appear to be a lot of geographical barriers, that canyon is in the same watershed. I wouldn't call them typical of the area, and there are arguably "intermediates" with the more familiar, and denser spination. I imagine there are more that share their distinctive look in the vicinity, quite possibly in the canyon below, which is too steep to descend at that location, and downstream travel from further to the east is hampered by a series of tinajas that so far this winter I haven't had the guts to swim through. That being said, I'm not an expert at IDing Feros, and am pretty much going off of my knowledge that this patch of ground would be out of the way for another species, or even the subspecies of acanthodes/cylindraceus that I'm aware of. I do have another odd Fero to post soon, but there's little mystery as to why it looks the way it does.

Hegar, the darkness in the rocks is a mix of the desert varnish already present, the off and on rain that day, and shadow. I was actually a little disheartened because the rock faces absorbing the rain deadened a lot of the petroglyphs that I had intended on photographing that day. Your question actually made me think about something that I'm surprised I haven't before, though. I want to say that sedimentary rocks seem to take more readily to staining from wildfire than igneous, at least in general. Although with heavy enough fuel loading or fire intensity anything will take on soot and retain it to some degree for potentially multiple seasons. Certainly repeated exposure can stain permanently, as that is one of the things I look for if I'm trying to find previously inhabited rock shelters. Also it could quite possibly play a role in creating more desert varnish, but maybe indirectly, as I'm sure direct flame would kill off a lot of the bacteria that help affix it to the rocks. In this location the fire was relatively low intensity, burning its way off the rim, and I believe stopped actually right at the point of those first Echinocereus. Which I'm fairly confident are yavapaiensis if anyone else still reading is curious.

...And yes, your March 2018 Orogrande post was partially responsible for this one, as I *really* enjoyed it. I've only driven through Orogrande a couple times and never been able to step into the Jarillas. I had forgotten how the El Paso area is tied in to that region of New Mexico. I've worked in the Guads and on the Lincoln once before and the country is just amazing. Plus have a couple good friends from Ruidoso, I'll have to ask if they've spent much time in the BLM country around there. Although I'm sure they'll have nothing positive to say about the cactus or agave! Last time I was in that area I got tagged by a centipede on the back of my noggin, stung like a son of a gun. Good times, though. As to your other comment, I don't even know what my reaction would be to seeing plants from the wild dug up like that. Perhaps a pervading disappointment in our species. Some of the "vandalism" on these sites actually occurred from other Native American peoples coming and going throughout the past 700 years. As a tribe would come through they would re-arrange the rocks to suit their own building styles. This then progressed to the ranchers and miners who would build their own corrals, houses, and other structures using these "pre-selected" rocks. But I feel I'm rambling on.

[autodikaktos]

I haven't had a chance to go through the more recent photographs to pick out what is and isn't worth posting, but I couldn't resist sharing this Echinocereus. Located on the top third of an east facing slope, this area really took some heat when the fire came through. Placement is important however, and the rocks and lack of heavier fuels nearby meant this one came out unscathed. I don't believe I found a single other untouched individual in the area. The tallest head is roughly 15"/38cm from base to tip. I wasn't able to take any other measurements because my trusty miniature tape-measure got a little banged up.

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I apologize for not being more up on my Echinocereus identification. So far I've been able to differentiate between 3-4 distinct types, and about another 3 that could go either way between any 2 of those distinct types. Hopefully with time, flowers, a couple more books in the home library, and this forum I can gain some confidence. Anyone willing to share their own experience or preferred resources would be warmly welcomed. Because of some of the taxonomic irregularities I'm even confused as to how to proffer a proper potential species list for the area for the benefit of the forum. Regardless, over the past couple years they've certainly become my most sought out genus in habitat, so there will be more photos. Someday maybe even with flowers!

[autodikaktos]

Had a chance to go through the photographs from this past Saturday, so it will be blocks of photos instead of blocks of text. Much better.

Before I start, for anyone curious, I am fairly confident the Echinocereus from the photos directly above is E. fasciculatus, as per Anderson's taxonomy. I feel more comfortable voicing my opinion after comparing a few different species descriptions as well as realizing that echinocereus.de is more easy to navigate than I had originally thought. Obviously there are limitations to certainty without flowers. Anyway...

Here is the Ferocactus I had hinted at a day or so ago. I am not good enough with my grass identification to tell you the percentages of native to non-native grasses in this area, but I can say with reasonable confidence that this area has been semi-grassland/high-desert since pre-modern times. Ergo, fire is part of the landscape here. At about 4000 feet at this latitude, and not in a drainage, this Fero is quite lonesome. It has flowered in the seasons since the fire passed, and although not winning any beauty contests, it seems like it will pull through.

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Almost every cactus in this set of photos has been burned back by fire and is regenerating. As mentioned in a previous post the fire burned hot through here, even scorching this Echinocereus that would've seemed set up for success being located higher in the rocks.

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At least an Opuntia and Cylindropuntia to justify its inclusion...

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Thought this one was particularly beautiful

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It is very rare when original coloring survives the ages for petroglyphs, and one of the reasons pictographs are so rare.

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Just another one I find interesting, looks like a horny toad to me, but I'm no expert

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Mammillaria grahamii, also recovering from fire, and quite well at that. Doesn't show up in these photos but generally had about 3 centrals, which while I doubt is rare, has never stuck out to me before. In the second photo you should be able to make out a fruit trapped by the radials, probably the only reason it hasn't been eaten. Two other heads also had fruit beneath the spines, but couldn't manage the focus well enough

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Another Echinocereus regenerating after fire, this is the only one I saw with this much color to it

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Came down out of the rocks to check out an abandoned mine that was visible from up high. After a little research it seems that though it was open for multiple decades it never gained much fame other than a place name that remains. This is the main building, Opuntia engelmannii guarding the doors

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This was an odd little one. Showing some interesting regeneration, unsure if this is an oddity or a normal growth pattern for certain species of Echinocereus

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On the drive out the mix of cloud and sunset practically made the Opuntia phaeacantha spines glow red. This was unfortunately the best photograph I could get of it.

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And couldn't resist one last photo of Cylindropuntia whipplei. I feel they are an overlooked beauty. I'm so convinced of this that I'm still posting it even though I didn't realize my truck was butting in on the photograph.

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Hope you all enjoy.

[ElieEstephane]

Again very beautiful photos! I enjoyed going through them

[Licespray]

Great post! Thanks for sharing. Loved seeing the Ferocactus in particular.

[mmcavall]

Really beautiful pictures! Are you sharing this to a bigger audience, such as in Flickr? They deserve to be admired!

[autodikaktos]

Thanks all, and no, mmcavall... I have an instagram I'll update a few times a year, but that is about it. A CactiGuide exclusive for now.