WikiBotanicals:Cactus and Succulents of the Mojave Desert

Cactus and succulents of the Mojave Desert are bizarre and wonderful plants.


 * "Many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air."
 * --William Blake

Background
Aficionados of the Mojave Desert, especially those with a fondness for hiking the myriad trails of this vast arid dry land, often confess their admiration of the survivors who dwell there. The stationery ones, those without four legs to scamper away, or the elongated ones who slither into the underbrush, are the succulents and cacti. They are the results of eons of evolutionary pressures --products of, and testimonies to, the tenacity of life itself.

One might suspect that the Mojave’s life forms long preceded our arrival on the scene. So enter their world. They don’t exist for our sake, and why should they? They are independent, resilient, and enduring in their own right. Beautiful, each in its own way, despite often being adorned with thorns and with the accompanying warning, “Look, but don’t touch.” Visit them, contemplate them, learn to love them. They are what they are, and what they are, is magnificent.

Springs Preserve Collection
The collection of Mojave cactus and succulents at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas is the most comprehensive of any public garden and winner of Horticulture Magazine's 2012 Garden of Excellence. The award is presented as part of the APGA annual meeting. Tracy Omar, Science and Gardens Supervisor for the Springs Preserve, summarized the honor:


 * "...Las Vegas is a young and transient city and almost everyone came here from somewhere else, bringing their lifestyle with them. Teaching them that living in the desert requires a wholesale change of that lifestyle is an ongoing battle. This award is recognition that the battle is worth fighting. Thank you."

The collection consists of 15 genera of plants and 52 species (summarized below).

Genera

 * Agave · Cylindropuntia · Dudleya · Echinocactus · Echinocereus · Echinomastus ·  Escobaria ·  Ferocactus · Grusonia · Hesperoyucca ·  Mammillaria · Nolina · Opuntia · Sclerocactus · Yucca.

Species
Agave Deserti var. simplex (Desert Agave) Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. plants usually with one or only a few rosettes; perianth tube 5–10 mm. The bright yellow flowers of the Agave deserti are organized in a 8 to 13 feet tall panicle (2.5 to 4 m).

Agave mckelveyana (McKelvey's Century Plant). small, relatively rare, dwarf species from western Arizona. Yellow flowers on a 10 feet tall panicle (3 m), in late spring. leaves spreading, broadest at middle.

Agave utahensis var. eborispina (Ivory-spined Agave). rosettes up to 3in. long, this subspecies is considered a dwarf form, growing 8 to 12 inches tall, of the larger utahensis, with the exception of elongated spines. leaves margin variegated.

Agave utahensis var. kaibabensis (Grand Canyon Century Plant). the giant form of A. utahensis. small rosette to 14 inches wide and pups freely.

Agave utahensis var. nevadensis (Nevada Agave). native of dry, stony calcareous outcrops to the east of the Mojave Desert with desert scrub; leaves pale blue-green, linear-laceolate, straight or falcate, spiked, convex below, stiff. flower light yellow, bulbous clusters.

Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa var. coloradensis (Colorado Buckhorn Cholla)

Cylindropuntia bigelovii (teddy-bear cholla) Usually with a central, erect trunk, 1 meter high or less, with short lateral branches, the upper ones erect; joints usually 5 to 15 cm. long, very turgid, with closely set areoles and almost impenetrable armament; tubercles slightly elevated, pale green, somewhat 4-sided, about as long as broad, 1 cm. broad or less; spines, as well as their papery sheaths, pale yellow; flowers several, borne at the tips of the branches.

Cylindropuntia echinocarpa (silver cholla) The plant is usually low, but sometimes 1.5 meters high, much branched and widely spreading, with a short woody trunk 2 to 3 cm. in diameter, in age with nearly smooth bark; joints short, turgid, strongly tuberculate; spines numerous, when young bright yellow, when oldet brownish, or in age grayish, unequally covered with thin papery sheaths; flowers yellowish, but the sepals often tipped with red; ovary short, turbinate, densely spiny especially in the upper part; fruit dry, very spiny; seeds somewhat angular, 4 mm. broad. Type locality is in the Colorado Valley near the mouth of Bill Williams River. It is distributed in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California, and Lower California.

Cylindropuntia ramosissima (Diamond Cholla) is a series of Cylindropuntia. Consisting of a single bushy species, with slender joints. The nearly flat tubercles diamond-shaped and contiguous. The acicular spines, when present, usually only 1 at an areole. It is distributed in Southern Nevada, western Arizona, southeastern California, northwestern Sonora and probably northeastern Lower California. Type locality in California, near the Colorado River.

Cylindropuntia ×multigeniculata (Blue Diamond cholla)

Dudleya lanceolata (Lanceleaf Liveforever) California and Baja California. (Lanceleaf live-forever). This dudleya has fleshy, pointed leaves of variable shape and size, from a basal rosette of flat, spade-shaped leaves to bunches of longer, thicker leaves. It is generally 1 foot (30 cm) tall and wide. Its stem is erect and bears a branching inflorescence with up to 20 flowers on each of its few branches. The flowers are generally bright yellow, pink, or red, with pale green bases.

Dudleya pulverulenta (chalk dudleya) Southern California. A handsome species. The leaves are spatulate, 6 inches long and about 3 inches broad, the surface heavily powdered as in D. farinosa. The red flowers appear in a slender branched raceme, a foot or more in length, furnished with heart-shaped leaves.

Dudleya saxosa var. saxosa (Panamint Liveforever) Panamint Mountains. Differs from other subspecies mainly in size.

Dudleya saxosa var. aloides (Panamint Liveforever ) Peninsular Ranges and desert mountains of Southern California.

Echinocactus polycephalus var. polycephalus (Cottontop Cactus ) California and Mojave Desert. A shrub, stem succulent.

Echinocactus polycephalus var. xeranthemoides (Cottontop Cactus) Great Basin and  Mojave Desert. Flower Jun. to Aug. in rocky hills, slopes, and ledges of canyons. Spines red to straw colored, canescent, or puberulent.

Echinocereus coccineus var. coccineus (scarlet hedgehog cactus)

Echinocereus engelmannii (Engelmann's Hedgehog) Mountains about San Felipe, southern California. Cespitose, forming large clumps; joints erect or ascending, cylindric, 1 to 3 dm. long, 5 to 6 cm in diameter; ribs 11 to 14, low, obtuse; areoles large, nearly circular; radial spines about 10, appressed, stiff about 1 cm. long. Distributed in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Sonora, and Lower California.

Echinocereus mojavensis (Mojave Kingcup) On the Mojave River in California. Cespitose, growing in massive clumps, often forming mounds, with hundreds of stems (500 to 800 have been recorded); stems globose to oblong, 5 to 20 cm. long, pale green; ribs 8 to 13, 5 to 6 mm. high, but becoming indistinct on old parts of stem, somewhat undulate; areoles circular, about 1 cm. apart; spines all white, or in age gray.

Echinomastus johnsonii (Johnson's fishhook cactus, Johnson's beehive cactus) plant native to the southwestern United States from eastern California to Utah, where it can be found in desert scrub habitat. It produces an egg-shaped or cylindrical stem up to 25 centimeters tall by 10 wide. It is covered densely in straight and curving spines which may be up to 4 centimeters long and come in shades of yellow, gray, lavender, and pink or red, with up to 24 per areole. The cactus may have yellow or pink flowers; the species is sometimes divided into two varieties on the basis of flower color. Flowers are up to 8 centimeters wide. The scaly, fleshy fruit is up to 1.8 centimeters long.

Escobaria vivipara var. alversonii (Cushion Foxtail Cactus)

Escobaria vivipara var. arizonica (Arizona Spinystar)

Escobaria vivipara var. desertii (Desert Spinystar)

Escobaria vivipara var. rosea (Rosy Spinystar)

Grusonia parishii (Matted Cholla and Parish club Cholla ) Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States. grows in spreading mats along the sandy ground no more than about 20 centimeters tall. The segments are up to 9 centimeters long by 3 wide and is surfaced in fleshy tubercles bearing many spines each up to 5 centimeters in length. The flower is yellowish and the fruit is yellow and up to 8 centimeters long.

Hesperoyucca newberryi (Newberry's yucca)

Hesperoyucca whipplei var. whipplei (chaparral yucca)

Hesperoyucca whipplei var. caespitosa

Mammillaria grahamii (Arizona Fishhook Cactus)

Mammillaria tetrancistra (common fishhook cactus). This cactus generally has a single cylindrical stem a few centimeters wide and up to about 25 centimeters tall. Each cluster of spines is made up of 3 or 4 dark.

Nolina bigelovii (Bigelow's nolina)

Nolina parryi (Parry's beargrass)

Opuntia aurea (golden pricklypear)

Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris (beavertail pricklypear)

Opuntia basilaris var. brachyclada (beavertail pricklypear)

Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei

Opuntia chlorotica (dollarjoint pricklypear)

Opuntia ×curvospina (searchlight pricklypear)

Opuntia macrorhiza (twistspine pricklypear)

Opuntia martiniana (seashore cactus)

Opuntia pinkavae (Pinkava's pricklypear)

Opuntia polyacantha var. erinacea

Opuntia polyacantha var. hystricina

Opuntia polyacantha var. nicholii

Opuntia polyacantha var. polyacantha

Sclerocactus polyancistrus (Engelmann and Bigelow). At the head of the Mojave River, California. Simple, globular to oblong, 1 to 4 dm. high; ribs 13 to 17, 1 to 1.5 cm. high, obtuse, strongly undulate; areoles 1 to 1.5 cm. apart; spines about 20; radial spines acicular, white, 1 to 2.5 cm. long; central spines several, rather unequal, up to 12.5 cm. long, the upper ones erect, white, flattened, the others brown, spreading, terete and often hooked; flowers magenta-colored, nearly 8 cm. long.

Yucca baccata (banana yucca) Though not adapted to the colder regions, grows freely as a native in southern Colorado to New Mexico and Nevada. The leaves are thick. The flower stalks are only 3 feet tall and the flowers are large, 3 inches long.

Yucca schidigera (Mojave yucca, Spanish Dagger) Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert of southeastern California, Baja California, southern Nevada and western Arizona. This yucca typically grows on rocky desert slopes and Creosote desert flats between 300–1,200 metres (980–3,900 ft) altitude, rarely up to 2,500 metres (8,200 ft). They thrive in full sun and in soil with excellent drainage. It also needs no summer water. It is related to the Banana yucca (Yucca baccata), which occurs in the same general area; hybrids between the two are sometimes found.

Yucca utahensis

External Link

 * Springs Preserve
 * Mojave Desert National Preserve