Hedgehogs, Pincushions, and Fishhooks

Anyway, back to the series on The Wild, Wild West where I was discussing the cacti native to Arizona, especially the southwest area. Along the way today, I’m playing along with Linda G. Hill’s prompt for today’s SoCS.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “start your post or one paragraph with the word ‘anyway.’” Bonus points if you start your post with “anyway” and regular points if you use it in a paragraph somewhere else in your post. Enjoy!

Today’s post concentrates on hedgehog cactus and their colorful flowers, pincushion cactus, and fish hook cactus.

This species grows in clusters, has brightly colored flowers, and favors rocky or volcanic soil.

You can surely understand how it gots its name with all those spiny clusters of sharp spines. This one resembles the Boyce Thompson hedgehog, but that has since changed classification.

Each of these species has the most vibrant flowers! This one here has 3inch white spines…Watch out! I wouldn’t want to fall on that! They also grow in New Mexico and certain parts of Texas. Most of the cactus I’m talking about does.

Who knew such dangerous plants grew such pretty flowers? The plants themselves can be pretty dull brown, or green clusters and these gorgeous flowers pop out! Nature is amazing!

Anyway, let’s move on to the fish hooks, shall we?

This one says it also goes by pineapple cactus and has red needles, or spines, making it appear pink or purple from a distance. I think when it gets a bit warmer, I’m going to go through the park and find out how many of these cacti I can find and identify. Many of the fine folks around here have them in their landscaping.

This example is pretty but rarely seen in our area, more to the northwest.

It says this is the most common variety local to Phoenix, so I doubt if I’ll find this one here, but of course, the flowers are mostly seen in the spring and summer. We might be gone by then. 🙁

Ok, now let’s look at a few pincushion types.

This guy grows flat to the ground and is seen all over Arizona, usually solitary in nature. It’s frost tolerant and can also be seen all the way down to the Texas gulf coast.

White to pale yellow flowers and green/brown fruits distinguish this species. Also close to the ground but grows in clusters instead of alone.

There’s still so many more different varieties of cacti to cover. I didn’t show nearly all of the many types of cholla cactuses, but some people may want me to move on now to the 10 most dangerous animals of the area. So, maybe tomorrow I’ll tackle that subject.

Anyway, it’s about time to sample some of that delicious strawberry cake Mr Darcy gave us! Yes, I returned his plate with some of my own creations on it…luckily the man loves peanut butter! I made him some peanut butter cookies and some chocolate and peanut butter fat bombs! He was very appreciative ☺️ It was nice to meet and chat with him for a few minutes. I learned that he moved here to the resort to be close to his grandkids, downsizing after his wife passed away. It made me happy that I returned his plate with a gift of my own on it!