Cactus in the News Roundup
I’ve been remiss in bringing you the latest in cactus news, so here’s a classy and informative roundup of all the latest.
A woman in Jackson, Michigan sees a prickly pear cactus bloom, right in her own front yard. Good times. The newspaper as always likes to cover the phenomenon of cactus in bloom for local color.
“Before this year I could count the blooms, there were so few of them. This year I can’t keep up with it. One (petal) had 11 blooms all the way around the edge of it,” she said.
Some good news for the cactus wren.
MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Olson, the science and stewardship director at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, has helped build 14 structures out of plastic pipe, flat-headed needles and barbed wire that are meant to simulate the knotty, thorny, succulent clusters that the wrens call home.
Olson and a crew of staff and interns began erecting the structures around Irvine’s foothill country Tuesday, close to real stands of cactus inhabited by the wrens.
“Half of it is getting the birds to nest in it,” he said as he loaded the structures into trucks. “The other half is to get them to nest successfully. Between the wind and the heat and the snakes – I hope this works.”
The El Paso Times, like other newspapers in Texas, likes to remind it’s readers that you can legally buy peyote from some vendors.
A sign in front of Mauro Morales’ Rio Grande City home announces his business for everyone to see. “Peyote Dealer,” it proclaims in large block letters….The slight, 65-year-old Rio Grande City man is one of only three people in the United States — all in Starr and Webb counties — authorized to harvest and sell the psychedelic cactus.
But as overharvesting continues to threaten peyote’s growth range in Starr County, he may not have much of a business for long — and Native Americans may lose their access to a substance that drives their religion.
Shall we try one more for today? How about a touching story about a woolly cactus in Santa Cruz?
This cactus can be made from fleece or felt, with pins doubling as cactus spines
