CactiGuide.com

Hey all
I am writing a scientific paper about the role of nurse objects on seedling establishment.
Nurse objects are inanimate objects that shield plants from the elements or negative biotic interactions.
Cacti are among the group of plants that have been shown to benefit from proximity to nurse plants and objects.
I am looking for pictures of cacti growing next to rocks in their natural habitat.
These are the criteria I am looking for:
- A beautiful picture of reasonable resolution
- The species of the plant and the location are known
- The cacti is very close to the rock and there are no other plants or objects in the area. The idea is to make it clear that it wasnt just by chance that the cacti grew next to the rock.
- You must be the one who took the picture (or have the photographers consent)
- Willingness to let me use it in the paper
I can not pay for the picture but credit will be given in the figure legend.

Thanks
Hagai

You can use any of my pictures I posted on my BCSS Travelogue. The later ones are habitat photos.

https://www.forum.bcss.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=164681

Dave
these are great pictures!
I wish that one day I can go on a trip like this...
Thanks!

Just give me the usual picture credit and you can use what you want.

DaveW (Dave Whiteley)

The nursing object can be another cactus or plant, right? Shade is important for young plats.

You can use my photos of any resolution in these or other sets:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7georgesp ... 820493316/ - Anza-Borrego Desert Park
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7georgesp ... 319684881/ -- Phoenix, AZ
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7georgesp ... 825898045/ -- Grand Canyon, AZ





Conditions are the same as DaveW's. Ask me about the exact location if you picked some of those.

I presume you are aware of these articles?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.10 ... 007-0698-y

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0081513

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2701848/

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley ... 2745.13015

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... nar_cactus

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2260991?origin=crossref

https://www.azplantlady.com/2009/09/nurse-plants.html

Also some cactus seedlings germinate initially in Selaginella, a moss type plant in some often rocky habitats which acts as a mini nurse plant until the seedling is large enough to overtop it.

Another way of protecting from desiccation of both seedlings and larger plants in dry periods is to grow under a thin layer of usually quartz sand, originally germinating there or later pulling down in the dry season and letting the sand blow over the top. This is typical of many of the group of Eriosyce often known as Thelocephala where seedlings at first often germinate under this transparent sand layer until large enough to grow above it. But in the dry season with more mature plants their contractile roots pull them back below ground.

When I went to Chile in an untypical wet year we found a patch with numerous Thelocephalas flowering. When my friend went back to the same coordinates the following year he could only find two plants as the rest had shrunk below the sand and were covered up again until the next wet period that could be in several years time. I suppose you could call that "nurse sand".

Thelocephala already flowering in reaction to rain before body appears above the sand.

Also cacti can create their own soil:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_ne ... 209687.stm

Thank you for all the info, articles and the pictures.
Over the years nurse plants have received much more attention compared to nurse objects.
Rocks have received more attention regarding cacti compared to other plant groups.
If I manage to publish my paper i will share it here as well
Thanks!

George
Do you know the species names for the Mammilaria and the Ferocactus?
Great pictures!!
Thanks
Hagai

Some tuberous rooted cacti that grow among or under rocks or even shrubs have ev0lved an extreme form of etiolation to get their flowering heads above rocks etc for pollination. This modification is retained even if grown in pots when no rocks are present.

https://bcss.org.uk/turbinicarpus-subte ... zimmerman/

https://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CAC ... bterraneus

Kipody wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 6:09 am George
Do you know the species names for the Mammilaria and the Ferocactus?
Great pictures!!
Thanks
Hagai

Mammillaria dioica & Ferocactus cylindraceus.

My theory is that aside from the sun shelter cacti growing next to rocks get more water because rainwater falling on that rock drains to the soil next to it.

Some more photos of this case:

Cylindropuntia echinocarpa in Joshua Tree Nat. Park, California.


Echinocereus triglochiadatus, Joshua Tree Nat. Park, California.

I can see that the clump on the left (Echinocereus engelmannii) suffers from drought and some of its heads are dead already. The clump on the right looks healthy.
Also a link for the whole set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7georgesp ... 315614395/