The Cactus Trip Diaries

Today Eunice was taking us back to the Torrey Pine State Park to look for a Dudleya that had escaped us on previous occasions. This time we risked a fine and a towed-away car by parking in a University annex car park (S1237) and walking into the State Park ‘from the back’ where nature competes with a huge Golf Club where golfers get their exercise by driving their electric carts at break neck speeds up and down the hills. There was a 8 ft fence that separated these two environments – not sure if it was meant to keep the joggers and nature lovers off the golf club, or the golfers from chasing their balls that had gone astray. There were plenty to be found on ‘our side’ of the fence, but unlike Cliff’s experience on a previous trip in Texas, there was no risk of confusing the balls with the local cacti, as there were no Epithelantha or Mammillaria laisiacantha to be found here.

Eunice led us to an area where the scrub had clearings that at first sight seemed to be covered by huge rabbit or guanaco droppings. On closer examination, these turned out to be ‘iron concretion nodules’ (ICN) – nearly as awkward a term as the Latin name for the plants: Dudleya (Hasseanthus) blochmannia subsp brevifolia. D. edulis and D. lanceolata were here as well.