The Cactus Trip Diaries

As described yesterday, we planned to return to S1853 to photograph some plants that I had missed the day before. It was only 3 km off our planned route, so no big deal.

First though we made a quick stop (four pictures) to photograph a fence of Fouqueria splendens – in flower (S1854). I am building up quite a collection of cacti and other xerophytic plants being used as fencing.

My stop numbers refer to a particular location on a specific date. The same location on a different date is given a different stop number. There are no hard rules that apply to creating these numbers, so I make up by own rules that fit my needs. So, S1853 on 5 April became S1855 and the additional plants found are all discussed in yesterday’s report.

S1856 was a stop suggested by the database. We forgot to see what we were supposed to be looking for so we kept our eyes open for any of the plants seen so far today. I guess the stop might originally been prompted by a coffee / beer stop as it was next to a cafeteria. We walked up to an electricity pylon as a marker, then back to the car having photographed Echinocereus sp in flower, Echinocactus horizonthalonius, Coryphantha sp, Mammillaria heyderi ssp meiacantha and Yucca endlichiana. The stop will probably be remembered by me for its smell of the chicken farm (small) at the back of the restaurant, which might explain why they were not busy.

Our next stop could be seen for miles around, a large flat top hill known as El Pillar. We drove through a small village and eventually stopped some 6 km out of town ( S1857). The landscape provided a hint to what we might find: Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus. While it is exciting to hunt for the plants, by the time that you’ve taken 20 pictures at a stop, they become boring as plant & location all look the same. Easy to get spoiled I guess. Angie felt the same about some Frailea’s that grow pulled back into the sand. Guess that we’ll have to go back one October when they should be in flower.

We then drove on to Viesca (Mam. viesciensis fame) but found nothing, just dust, dust and more dust. Once back on asphalt we had to stop and clean the windows as it was like sitting in a car covered in snow – visibility nil.

S1858

S1859

S1860

S1861

to be continued