![Picture](/uploads/1/0/5/5/10551590/published/cacti-fmsp2010-2.jpg?1602956988)
I had a few days of near solitude in the Franklin Mountains, hiking the high Chihuahuan Desert. In addition to the various shrubs, many clearly adapted to drier conditions, there are of course cacti. With just some casual wandering, I photographed and identified 8 different genera, including barrel cacti, beehive cacti, hedgehog cacti, chollas and prickly pears. I was obviously too late in the year for flowers, but there were still dried flowers and fruits on some, and even without the showy blooms, there were some rather attractive species. Perhaps my favorite on this trip was the Texas Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus), which frequently appears striped, due to different color spines. Maybe not a real rainbow, but certainly distinctive.
The Cacti (Family Cactaceae) are classed within the pinks and carnations (Order Caryophyllales). There have been a lot of updates and adjustments to the classification of cacti over the past half century, and for the most part, I use the Powell, Weedin and Powell book “Cacti of Texas” and Weniger’s “Cacti of Texas” for identification (with some clarification from online sources, such as the Opuntia Web), but most often use the scientific name as reported in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as the up-to-date nomenclature (with the exception here of the Sweet Prickly Pear (Opuntia Dulcis), which is not recognized in ITIS).
Any errors in identification are entirely mine, and I am happy to have them pointed out.
The Cacti (Family Cactaceae) are classed within the pinks and carnations (Order Caryophyllales). There have been a lot of updates and adjustments to the classification of cacti over the past half century, and for the most part, I use the Powell, Weedin and Powell book “Cacti of Texas” and Weniger’s “Cacti of Texas” for identification (with some clarification from online sources, such as the Opuntia Web), but most often use the scientific name as reported in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as the up-to-date nomenclature (with the exception here of the Sweet Prickly Pear (Opuntia Dulcis), which is not recognized in ITIS).
Any errors in identification are entirely mine, and I am happy to have them pointed out.
Genus Coryphantha (Beehive Cactus)
Genus Cylindropuntia (Cholla Cactus)
Genus Echinocactus (Barrel Cactus)
Genus Echinocereus (Hedgehog Cactus)
Genus Escobaria (Pincushion Cactus)
Genus Ferocactus (Barrel Cactus)
Genus Opuntia (Prickly Pear Cactus)
Genus Sclerocactus (Fishhook Cactus)