*CACTI OF THE ARIZONA DESERT IN THEIR NATURAL GROWTH SETTING*

That was fantastic Skippy. I love cacti and I've got some I've had since my teenage days back in the 60s. I always like to see photos of them in their natural habitat.

Very interesting, i remeber going to a cacti garden in the Canary isles a few years back, it was set on the side of a mountain, so many different ones, i took loads of pictures, unfortantely don't know what i did with them, so loved seeing your pic's. they are really interesting plants.

thanks Skippy great to see where some of my cactus come from.

Really enjoyed your walk Skippy and its great that you know all the names - I wish we could all say the same about our indigenous plants, I know I can't.

Great blog Skippy.Enjoyed your journey.

Hywel and Sandra, I knew you were both into cacti and I was hoping you would enjoy it.

Majeeka, I'll bet you saw even more of a variety than this in the Canary Islands.

Wagger, I only knew the common names. I spent most of a day, between washing clothes, answering TTs puzzle and taking care of my Mom, looking up the botanical names of each species. It was only hard to determine the type of Barrel and Opuntia I had photographed.

BB, I'm hoping you brought Jane along on the walk....

Thanks Skippy...yes she came along too!

Appreciate the effort of looking up the names - thanks.

Great to see plants thrive in their natural habitat.

I love the desert plants, Ams, but I will have to admit that I had ceased being intrigued by them many years ago. They were just something you see everyday and don't appreciate. I took this walk deliberately with GoY in mind. There are many species which are not represented here but I think I captured all that this area of the desert offered. I would like to show you an Ocotillo and teddy bear Cholla but they were not represented here. Maybe later I will do another blog to show some more species. Thanks for your comment.

Enjoyed the walk with you,it was very interesting.

Thanks, Clarice...I enjoyed your company...even if just a moment in time

How lovely, this reminded me of the holiday I took in Tucson in 2002, Arizona isn't called the cacti state for nothing. Get some snaps when they are in flower as well it is amazing. I remember being taken up Mt Lemmon and walking back down off road, jumping over ravines, dodging scorpions and other deadly beasts, the cacti were all inspiring

Ah, there were probably some other varieties of Cacti in the Tucson and Mount Lemmon area....you made me laugh when you talked about the scorpions and deadly beasts, Andrea....not often you would see one of those deadly beasts out in the open....I can identify with jumping over the natural ravines...Of course if you were traveling open desert, not a trail, you are more apt to see the desert critters...

What an interesting and well researched blog! It's fascinating to see the native plants of a different part of the world. How lovely to have that as your Christmas walk, too.

Yes, RJ, it was a wonderful walk in which I took the heart of GoY with me....thus the pictures...and I convinced my family to let me do it alone so I would not lose my focus and end up without the pictures I was after..

When we went off track down Mt Lemmon we dislodged a rock when we missed a foothold and a scorpion was underneath. Some of the smaller ravines and ponds we found had little critters swimming about in them, they looked like crayfish, if only I'd had a disposable BBQ with me at the time we could have cooked up a feast, it was really hot and it was around March, very dry and dusty

excellent blog Skippy, i really enjoyed that walk, pics are brilliant

Ah, yes, Andrea. I'm familiar with critters that hide under rocks but not with the little crayfish critters. I was raised in Phoenix and didn't get to the Tucson area very much until my son attended college there but never had the time to explore it much.....the dry and dusty, I really identify with...lol

Hey,

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Wow! right in the middle of responding to Irish, my screen went crazy and 3 comments of garbage appeared....don't know what happened. The d and the g were not even part of what I was typing at the time...h-m-m-m Ok, I'll try again.....

Thanks, Irish, for joining me in my desert walk but I think I would rather be walking alongside you exploring Ireland....but not in the winter...take care

Does anyone know if I can delete those comment boxes after the fact? I tried but didn't see any way to do it....I went into edit mode and removed the letter....tried submitting and not submitting....nothing worked...

Skippy, you cannot hide the fact that you were swigging back J.D. or something - blaming your computer indeed ;-)

Well, I am on antibiotics for my bronchitis, does that count, Ams?

Reputation in tact, don't worry.
Once a new comment has superseded the previous comment it cannot be edited, an 'Edit' prompt will head all last comments on a subject. Get well soon.

Thanks, Ams....

Just found this blog.
Catching up during a busy time of work at home.
Well done Skippy.
This is very interesting. :o)