Share Our World: Cactus Garden

There are many parts of the Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum here is a closer look at the cactus garden.

I am starting to be more active in communities... and this one is for #succulentgrowers.

Woolly Jacket Prickly Pear

I have been living in Arizona for 13 years and a member of the Desert Botanical Garden for 10 years and this was the first time I have seen this type of Prickly pear. It is very beautiful!

From the Arizona-Sonora Museum Desert

Many prickly pears begin life covered in hair, but grow out of that stage in a few weeks. Woolly Jacket appears to be stuck in that juvenile stage; always furry and never blooming. Its gray-green pads are decorated with persistent tufts of white wooly hairs. Without flowers, it is unknown what species (or hybrid) it really is. Growth is upright at first, but long pads will lean over, touch the ground, and root.1

Purple Prickly Pear

While this is a very small purple prickly pear they can grow up to 4 feet tall and 5 feet wide. They are native to the Sonoran Desert. They flower in late spring and produce red to purple colored fruit. 2

Mother of Hundreds

These are some of my favorites, especially when they are flowering. I love how they form crown flowers.

They originated in central Mexico and propagate by division and form small colonies. The fruit is said to be delicious, tasting like strawberries. 3

Look at the bright almost neon cacti on the left.

Sonoran Galloping Cactus

From the beautiful to the strange.

Creeping Devil Cactus

You can see a whole bunch of the creeping devil coming toward me here in this picture.

According to Wikepedia

Creeping devil lies on the ground and grows at one end while the other end slowly dies, with a succession of new roots developing on the underside of the stem. Over the course of many years, the entire cactus will slowly travel, with stems branching and taking root toward the growing tips, while older stem portions die and disintegrate. This traveling chain of growth gives rise to the name eruca, which means "caterpillar", as well as the common name creeping devil. 4

Rainbow Hedgehog

Another new cactus for me is this Rainbow Hedgehog. These fun cacti look like they have striped socks on them.

They can be found throughout Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico, as well as in the United States in Arizona and New Mexico and can grow to a height of up to 11 inches, and a width of 4 inches when mature. The flowers are bright pink in color and have a greenish to dark purplish fruit. 5

Big Bertha

This very large hedgehog cactus that was imported from Germany after WWI and named after a large gun. It can grow up to 5 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter. The flowers can be up to 8 inches in diameter. 6

A look at the cactus garden from a distance. So beautiful!!

Hope all you succulent lovers enjoyed a closer look at some the interesting and unique succulents in the cactus garden at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.