Flowers in the Southwest Desert

Some of you remember when I purchased my 99 cent store flower.  Here it is, going strong.

  my 99 cent store flower  

I am so pleased with this purchase.  If there are more of these at the 99 cent store next time I am there, I will pry out the old wallet and purchase another.  The color is even more vibrant in person than in this photo.  It thrives in a partially shaded location with watering when dry.  The pot is a six inch diameter at the widest point.  The plant is just over seven inches tall.  The flowers are long lasting and as you may guess from the size of the pot, it does not require much water, although I tend to overindulge it with a nearly daily glass of water. 

Contrast that with some free cactus flowers. 

  cholla flower, 1.5 inch diameter, with wilted  flowers and bud below 

This is a very wicked plant.  You do not want to get too close.  Notice the sharp, needle-like spines.   The spines are modified leaves.  The spines actually shade the plant.  I am using a stick to hold the arm of the cactus down low enough to get a photo of the flower and all it's delicious yellow pollen.  Until corrected I will state that this is a cholla, a spiny cactus with cylindrical stem segments, of the genus Opuntia.  There are over 20 species of Opuntia.  Cholla are native to the Southwest United States and Mexico.  They are found in all the deserts of the Southwest.  Different species have adapted to different elevations and conditions.  They are indigenous to the Southwest Desert.  No additional water required.  

The word cholla may come from obsolete Spanish, old French, or Germanic words.  Because the double "l" in cholla is pronounced like a "y" as in the word tortilla, I will bet on Spanish derivation of the word.  Say "choy'-ya" and "tor-tee'-ya" not "choh'-la" or "tor-til'-la".

The prickly pear cactus is also a species of  Opuntia.  There are said to be about twelve different types of prickly pear in the North American deserts.  Here is a yellow flower typical of one of the many prickly pear in the Southwest Desert.  Notice all the flower buds behind the flower.   

"smooth" prickly pear flower, 3 inch diameter: notice the tiny dots on the "pads" are tiny clusters of very fine spines 
The prickly pear typically has flat "pads" that are like round or elongated pancakes, one connected to the other.  The pads will vary in size from one type of prickly pear to another, from as small as 2 inches, to as large as 13 inches.  Some varieties of prickly pear, such as the Southwest Desert's plentiful Englemann's prickly pear, have long, easily visible clusters of needle-like spines.  The smooth prickly pear does not have easily visible spines.  The little yellow pin-head size dots on the pads are clusters of very fine spines (see photo above).  You do not want to get the fine spines on your skin as they are quite hard to see and remove.  Those of us who live and garden here either become very graceful and avoid contact with cacti (plural for cactus, pronounced kak'-tie), or we learn to remove spines when we can, and live with the spines that we cannot remove.

Prickly pear pads can be cooked and eaten.  I am not that hungry but it's nice to know it is there if I need it.  The fruit of most prickly pear can be eaten or made into jams, jellies, syrup, and candy.  But let's face it, they add sugar or some other sweetener to the prickly pear fruit for most commercially viable products.  Prickly pear juice is said to have healthful properties.  I have nothing against products with healthful properties, it's just that so many of them are just so darned expensive.

In some stores prickly pear fruit is called "tuna."  Think: chicken of the desert.  Don't tell the ahi.  The fruit often has very fine spines, so watch out when handling it.  To protect your fingers from the spines, you can hold the prickly pear fruit with pliers, or any tool you have that functionally resemble pliers.  Are you that hungry or that curious?  If you want food with a lot of procedure for a small reward, you can always opt for artichoke.

I hope you are inspired to learn more about the wonderful world of Opuntia or perhaps just make yourself a tuna sandwich.  Either way, take time to enjoy the flowers.    

A special howdy to the folks in Malaysia who read my blog, and a happy trails to all you readers in the good old USA.

Yours truly, 
Southwest Desert Blogger
C.  (c)2011

Plant a Garden

We had a particularly cold winter.  Several nights in a row were below freezing.  This would not be unusual except that several of those nights in a row were, more or less, around 15 degrees (F) which is much too cold for ornamental cacti, succulents, and other plants which are not indigenous.  Even some of the southwest desert native flora suffered at 15 degrees and below.  Some of them died.  They passed on, kicked the bucket, went to plant heaven, took a dirt nap... Those nights were in the record-setting cold category.

All of this is great for the nurseries and other businesses that sell plants.  But after a period of mourning for the dearly departed, I decided not to invest large in flora this year.  One reason is that I keep hoping some of the trees and bushes will rise from the dead.  I'm giving them until Easter.  That's the deadline.  A couple of citrus have put out suckers.  Others are stiff and breakable, indicative of dead wood.  Due to its high water content most of the aloes froze despite being covered.  Yes, we cover our frost sensitive plants and young trees on cold nights.  A few hearty, well located aloes survived and are flowering.  However, most aloes were post-frost heavy, sad, sacks of liquid that left their root systems and underground runners to provide a next generation for me. 

Desert folk are weird.  On cold nights they not only cover plants with an assortment of old sheets, quilts, blankets, towels, cardboard cartons, and whatever else is available, including frost cloth that can be purchased for the purpose of covering plants, but they go without heat in their homes while heating their greenhouses.  I used to be a member of the local Cactus and Succulent Society.  Not heating one's home, but heating the greenhouse so that exotic, frost sensitive cacti and succulents would survive was one of the old timers' interesting quirks.  They were an strange crew, but then the yuppies moved in and took over.  Well, that's another story for another time.  Back to the garden for now.

I bought one small succulent at the 99 cent store.  It was rather like buying a lottery ticket in a 3 inch pot.  I wondered what quality a 99 cent plant would have.  Would this investment pay off?  I  re-potted it and it is blooming nicely -- best 99 cents I have spent in a while.  Next I purchased some wheat berries and planted a 6 inch diameter terra cotta pot of wheat grass for the dog to munch on.  I found an old packet of basil seeds and planted them.  They are crowded little sprouts that I've been thinning and adding to pasta and salad.  I had a dried pomegranate in a bowl.  It was harvested last year.  I cut it open, and planted some of the seeds.  To my surprise, those pomegranate seeds were still moist.  I went to town and bought a packet of chive seeds -- a wild impulse purchase.  They are fine, thin sprouts that I hope tolerate the heat.  They will be kept in the shade. 

I expect there will be more clearing of dead wood along with joy at late signs of life from the frost damaged plants.  For now, the seeds sprouting and 99 cent plant blossoming before the hard burn of summer heat is a delight.