The election is over, and I hope all your candidates won.

Alaskans are crazy (and I say that as someone who still has lots of friends/relatives up there.)

Californians too.

Anyway, as I was saying, it’s back to cactus for you.

Eriosyce occulta – don’t you just love black plants? They’re quite rare in nature and so they seem very special.

Edithcolea grandis

Election Day! Carrion Flower! Go vote or else!

Edithcolea grandis

I have no idea who this Edith person is and why she has a carrion flower named after her.

The flower only last for a day, maybe a bit of a 2nd day at most. The stems are sprawling. It’s easy to get it to bloom, and is not as stinky as other carrion flowers. Look deep into the center, for tomorrow is election day and I can think of nothing better than getting right into the middle of a carrion flower to encourage you to vote (I mean I’m going to have a closeup of the flower tomorrow, but only if you promise to vote.)

Yesterday’s butterfly was a nice straight-on shot of the back of the wings.

Here we see that the underside of the wings has even more aggresive patterning. Nice.

I like the butterfly patterning juxtaposed with the Euphorbia milii’s inflorescence patterning. Nice bracts.

Butterfly on a Euphorbia milii with a Coleonema pulchellum in the background.

Nice patterning.

As promised yesterday, the final shot of the Echinopsis terscheckii in bloom. Click the picture for the full size image. I especially love the subtly peach-colored sepals surrounding the white petals.

Last week I posted this Echinopsis terscheckii in bud, and said I would post when the bloom has opened. Now it is opened. Can you tell?

Tomorrow I’ll post another shot.

Solanum quitoense – A large-purple-leafed shrub produces delicious juicy fruits called naranjillos. Plant them for the purple fuzzy leaves, harvest them for the juice. Be the first on your block, I always say.

Echinopsis terscheckii – Faster than a Saguaro, mature (i.e. blooming age) much younger, but really just as impressive, it’s the Cardon Grande from Argentina.

These used to be classified as Trichocereus, but then all the tricho’s as well as the lobivias, and more all got moved into Echinopsis. I wonder how long that will last?

I’ll update you when the bud opens, maybe even post a photo of the bloom. Actually, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed I’ll be photographing the bloom and posting it on the blog.

Ferocactus pottsi – generally not a fall bloomer, but we have a few fero’s with a few late blooms, including this large specimen. With some buds still left to bloom, maybe in early winter!

I don’t know what this pixdaus site is, but they give you embed codes for the pictures, so here’s a nice cactus in bloom from Q T Luong.

I’m going to guess it’s an echinocereus, but that red is very very red.

Gymnocalycium stenopleurum v. friedrichii

Click the picture to see the whole thing.

Gerrardanthus macrorhiza

Classic caudex-forming plant from South Africa. Easy to grow, with massive vining. Tiny flowers coming right at the leaf nodes off the vine. Nice orange color, very unusual.

This member of the Cucurbitaceae family comes from southern Africa. First described by Benth & Hooker, and then by William Henry Harvey in 1867.

Quiabentia verticillata

Rare cactus. See those leaves on top of that extra spiny body? Must be in the Pereskioideae sub-family. But no! It’s in the Cylindropuntia cactus tribe. i.e. it’s a cholla! Anyway, from Argentina, they can grow into giant trees. But they’re slow growing here in California.

Sarcocaulon crassicaule

This spiny shrub from Namibia in the geranium family can get to about 10″ tall. Well, that barely qualifies as a shrub.

I don’t know what this is. We have a whole bunch of them growing. They’re only 4 years old, but I don’t even know if they’re a small barrel, getting close to full size, or if they’re a giant barrel just starting off. I’m guessing it’s an Echinocactus, but I just don’t know. I’ve identified about a dozen genuses it could be.

Here we have a beautiful daisy-like flower, larger than the little succulent hiding underneath. You can see it peeking through the petals. I wonder what it is?

Another picture after the break…
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Ipomoea jaegeri

Now that’s a stunning plant. The flowers last only the one day, but they’re quite big for a morning glory, about 4 inches across. Succulent stems, to 2 or 3 ft. Shrubby things.

Look what we found in among the olive trees.

There’s been a lot of spiders out this time of year. I carry a bamboo stake when coming in to the nursery first thing, to clear all the webs along the aisles. It’s starting to get to the point where they’re across the window on the car, across the front door at home, and they spin those webs so fast that you can clear an aisle and find another full web within an hour!

Maybe I should ask Keith to stop feeding them slugs so they’ll go away.

I try to use these quotes as a way to add a little politics to the site without writing political posts. So now should be the time for presidential candidate quotes. But events overtake, and I really like the way this is phrased. It’s not really a quote, more like a subordinate clause:

…Wall Street’s blind faith in its own ability to transubstantiate subprime mortgages into AAA-rated, investment-grade paper…

Now that’s an image to hold onto. (Billmon)

And here’s an image for your patience:

It’s a closeup of an Opuntia subulata c.v. monstrose. A wonderful example of how a small virus can take a giant tree cholla and turn it into a densely packed apartment-block of branches no taller than 3ft.

by DevilsTower. I’ll wait for you to finish it and come back….

OK, so that was interesting.

Here, have a picture for your effort:

Echinocereus morricalii – a spineless hedgehog cactus (well, almost spineless)! Sprawling clumps of low stems from Monterrey, Mexico. They will have Magenta flowers, if you can wait. We’re keeping them indoors, because they’re just a bit frost sensitive.

I hate that common name. What a stupid name. They should change it. I’m going to call this the Cherry Pie Yucca, because it’s delicious.

Yucca rostrata – From Texas, it can get over 6 ft. tall, and will look a lot like a Joshua Tree, but it will survive the winter in these parts, thrive even. Still, it’s not as famous as the Joshua Tree, and so most people aren’t interested. I suppose if Bono hasn’t sung a song to it recently, then you might not want it. Well fine. More for me.

Here’s a Saguaro photo that appears on a site called Now Public. It lists a creative commons license that allows reproduction with attribution.

Photo by drewnaustin

I think this was OK for me to do.

It’s a new Sedum for us, S. Rosy Glow. I think they call it that because it has a bit of a rosy glow to it. It’s low growing like one of our other favorite shrubby sedums, S. “Bertram Anderson”, but a milder color.

Cistus x. skanbergii – Pink Rock Rose

Hybrid from Mediterranean Natives
Evergreen Fragrant Ornamental

Showy 1″ pale pink blooms. Great for informal divider, in rock gardens or accent plant. Deer and Fire resistant, good for coastal locations.

What more could you want out of a plant, anyway?

Euphorbia leucodendron

These green sticks with tiny green leaves are very similar to the more common Pencil Cactus, Euphorbia tirucallii which also are sometimes known as Firesticks when they have red tips. Anyway, this species, not that other one, is hardy outside in the Bay Area. So we like it. And you do too. But just don’t get any of that milky white sap, i.e. poison, on your lips or in your eyes. It will hurt like the dickens. Hospital visits may ensue. Some crying, some burning.

Similar to the more common “Bishop’s Cap” but not the same. After all, they are different species.

Astrophytum ornatum. Or Astro, as I call it.

Usually they’re dark green. And they like shade in the hotter climates. But we can grow them in full sun, carefully, and they’ll turn red. Slow growing, but they can get tall – over 3 ft. tall if you’re lucky!

The book says their aureoles “often become glabrous.” I wonder what that means?

Matucana madisoniorum

These tiny barrels are often flattened in shape, usually solitary, from high in the Andes of Peru, like all the cool cactus kids these days. They get orange/red funnel-shaped flowers, so I’m told, but I haven’t seen them yet, so I cannot verify this. But they do bloom young, and only get to around 4 to 6 inches across. Very rare in the wild because of over-collection, so get your specimen from a seed-grown source.