Cactus Blog 

I see the hoya compacta blooms have opened. Here they were last week ready but not open.

Some kind of racing thingy in the desert going on here.

After missing three rounds of the AMA Racing/Kenda National Hare & Hound Championship Series with a knee injury, few people expected defending series champion Kendall Norman to be 100 percent when he returned to the series… outside of Lucerne Valley, California….

But Norman regrouped… and was able to capitalize when Caselli went down and ended up in a cactus. “He had balls of cactus all over him!” Norman described. “Dude, it sucks for him; I know the feeling!”

Norman went on for the win.

“It sucks for him” being the operative phrase.

So what kind of racing is this AMA, this National Hare and Hound Championship in the desert?

Here’s the race logo, from something called Dust Magazine.

I still have no idea.

Finally! From the Atacama Desert comes some good news in these days of high gas prices.

The driest place on earth, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, wouldn’t seem an auspicious place for biofuel production.

Biotechnology experts, however, may have found a way to turn one of the desert’s only available plants, the cactus, into energy.

A US$500,000 pilot project in the Río Jorquera Valley in the Copiapó province aims to reduce Nopal cactus stems to high-energy dry briquettes that can be burned in coal-fired thermoelectric plants.

Everyone likes a good cactus briquette.

Here’s a delicious looking recipe for grilled cactus that you can now make on your cactus-briquette-fired grille.

By the way the temperatures in Santiago are very similar to here even though they’re in the Southern hemisphere and all. High 70s for everyone!

I’m not sure what to say about this. I know the architect, I know the part of Culver City, and I know the cactus.

Architect Eric Owen Moss continues his makeover of Culver City’s Hayden Tract with 3585 Hayden, an adaptive reuse of two old warehouse structures. He’s connected the two buildings and added a twisty tower at the eastern edge of the property, on Hayden Avenue, but standing literally out above the rest of the project is the Cactus Tower, a renovation of a 60-year-old steel frame structure that once housed an industrial press, according to the architect’s website. The tower was stripped down to its frame and the firm put up a grid of Mexican Fence Post cacti, housed in steel drums that “form the vertical, compressive members of a series of trusses that span the tower. The top chords of the trusses are the T’s, the bottom chords, the cables, and the planter drums are compressed between the two.”

Do you have any thoughts to add since I’m a little stumped? Besides adding a species name to the cactus, Pachycereus marginatus.

Besides the link to the bees and beetles below, that is.

A really nice blooming Pediocactus simpsonii photo taken in Colorado, as found on flickr. Candy colored flowers. Did I mention the colors look like they could be made into spun sugar ribbon candy?

Amazing photos of cactus bees and disgusting beetles on cactus from Margarethe Brummermann’s Arizona Beetles Bugs Birds and More Blog – I’ve borrowed one photo, but recommend you check out the rest of them.

Cactus Bees, genus Diadasia hectically buzz from flower to flower and dive deeply between the stamina. Males refuel with nectar, females collect pollen for the brood in addition. Often, before they fly off again, they seem to hesitate and wait motionless. That’s the moment when males will suddenly pounce on the females.

Amazing photos AND tales of bee sex too! Nice.

Exciting news in the world of national park cacti!

A crew surveying plants at Saguaro National Park west of Tucson has made a “shocking” discovery: a mature organ-pipe cactus growing among the saguaros….

The find is significant because the big cacti – with arms somewhat resembling organ pipes – are almost completely limited in this country to warm, low-elevation deserts at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument south of Ajo….

Hubbard said a crew from the monitoring network, which is a part of the National Park Service, found the Saguaro Park specimen in February in a “sort of protected micro-site.”

The plant is big, but clearly not in its ideal environment. You can see the really pronounced yearly variations in width and the most recent growth is not looking healthy, probably a very cold couple of winters.

Dischidia ovata, from the Mangrove swamps of Queensland, Australia.

It’s been Hoya week here at the Blog, and now we have the very close relative, the Dischidia, which is also in the same Asclepiadaceae. It’s also the family of the Stapliads, after they got moved over from the Stapeliaceae family. And the Milkweeds like our own native Asclepias tuberosa. Now that’s a nice family.

Anything else I can tell you about this Dischidia? Or maybe you’d like to read a bit about the Mangrove swamps of Queensland, Australia. Well….

In the news we find out that Cyclone Yasi has downed trees and the swamps are now in renewal mode.

Delosperma floribundum

Hoya compacta blooms are not yet open. Soon!

It’s a cactus “Cholla Scarf Slide” as seen on Etsy. I don’t really understand. What is this about?

Here’s a part of the description:

Here’s a really unique idea for the cowboy in your life…..a scarf slide made from the skeleton of a cholla cactus. The cholla cactus is quite beautiful and decorative but boy does it have a “bite” when it’s alive…lol.

This selection is cut on an angle or is pointed at the end adding to the overall length of the slide. A little fancier or more unusually shaped than the standard slides. We try and use the natural form of the cholla to shape these 🙂

Genuine Cholla Cactus skeleton

Does that help you? It doesn’t help me. And what’s up with the acacia branch in the photo?

Hoya lanceolata subsp. bella variegata has awesome foliage and the flowers are what one might call, if one were Italian that is, “bella”.

We do recommend this event to you and your family for a really nice Mother’s Day.

Dear Friends of the Edible Schoolyard,

I am writing to follow up on the email I sent you today about the
Mother’s Day Plant Sale and Celebration. This year’s Plant Sale has
a lot of new offerings (gourmet treats to give Mom, workshops from
Local 123, greater selection of food…) and we really want to get
the word out to as many people as possible. If you would forward my
previous email with all the details about the Plant Sale to anyone
you think would be interested, we would really appreciate it.

And, of course, I hope to see you at the Plant Sale on May 7th!

Warmly,

Winslow
– – –
Administrative Coordinator
The Edible Schoolyard

1781 Rose Street
Berkeley, CA 94703
510-558-1335

www.edibleschoolyard.org

It’s an unnamed Hoya species. The flowers are pretty, if mostly white. The leaves are pretty standard Hoya, medium sized ovoid. Any ideas? Here’s a good place to look.

Of course, it’s probably one of the H. carnosa hybrids, but I refuse to stick my neck out for this guy.

Almost yellow flower.

I’ve had my beautiful beloved cactus from you guys for about a year. Everything has been great until a week ago when my husband accidentally took a chunk out of it with the patio chair. It appears to be growing black spots of mold? I have sprayed it twice over the past week w/ neem oil. What else should I be doing to save it?

Please help, if it dies so does my husband! Its an outside cactus w/ full afternoon sun.
Thanks
Jen

Jen,
It would be best if you could bring the Echinopsis pachanoi out of the sun while the plant heals. Never spray in full sun, and open wounds should also not be exposed to direct sun.

You’ll need to cut off the damaged part as it has started to rot in the area. It doesn’t look too bad but you want to keep the damage from spreading. Once you get down to clean flesh, then you spray with Hydrogen Peroxide to help it heal and Neem Oil to help fight off any fungus problems.

If you need help with this, we can do it for you if you bring it in to the nursery. Sooner is better.
Peter

Adenium somalense is from Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania and will grow a caudex to about 20″ It looks superficially like the more common A. obesum, but it’s smaller and the leaves are distinct and if you know the A. obesum flowers, you can tell that the petals on this one are also pretty distinct, although clearly an Adenium.

“I literally could not care less if I were in a coma.”
David Rakoff in Salon

Unknown Gymnocalycium, also known as gymno’s.

Hi! Love your blog! It’s been real fun to look at succulents and cacti from all over the world, especially those that you don’t come across everyday at your neighbor nurseries.

I came across this plant (I think it’s a succulent?) in the courtyard of a store yesterday. I think it’d be perfect in my yard. Do you know what it’s called? Thanks in advance!!

RC

RC
Looks like a Euphorbia lambii in bloom which is hardy down to 25F and will get up to 10 feet tall! Not a succulent, but it is drought tolerant.
Peter

Himalayacalamus hookerianus

We installed this a couple years ago and it’s filled out very nicely.

Hi there.

Do you know what kind of tree this is? Pretty awesome. I saw it in Santa Barbara.

Rose Ann

Rose Ann,

It is Dracena draco, aka the “Dragon Tree”.

I love these plants, but they are a bit moody this far north… and take frost damage between 30-28 degrees when young, they can deal with it better older. So they are good candidates for growing in pots or in a protected spot against a structure and blanketing in the worst winters. But they also make great “Big” houseplants and can handle hot windows as well as bright diffused light.

Hap

Salvia brandegei “Pacific Blue” – is from Santa Rosa Island, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara.

These are a nice size. They’ll get 4 ft. tall x 6ft. wide. Heavily branched, the narrow green leaves are nicely scented. The tiered whorls of dark lavender blue flowers open slowly over the course of a month long bloom period. Long-lived, very drought-tolerant, hardy to at least 15°F.

The local feral cat has moved into the back. I suppose the black nursery tray was warm in the sun.

Fremontodendron californicum

This is a shorter of the California flannels. Generally it will stay below about 10ft. They put out an amazing show of these buttercup-yellow flowers in spring, i.e. right now. Right Now!

I hear from the grapevine that they will espalier well. They’re totally freeze tolerant so you could probably grow it in Oregon too, just try to keep them a bit drier in the summer.

We like IDing plants. Send in your photos!

Hi,
I hope that you can help me to identify the Euphorbia that’s in the attached photos taken in the past 10 days. I recently took over this garden, don’t really know how well the soil was prepared, but it was planted about 4 years ago. You can see it is not a tall euphorbia…any ideas what it might be? I want to get some more of these to reflect this bed on the other side of the driveway.

Thanks for your help!

Best,
Scott

Scott,

It looks like one of the E. characias hybrids, or possibly Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii.

Peter

Aloe somaliensis blooms are subtly colored and best viewed by holding the pot up high against the blue sky backdrop. A corner of a building looks good too. Make sure the wires are out of focus.