Flowers of the Desert

by Lucinda Walter

Title

Flowers of the Desert

Artist

Lucinda Walter

Medium

Photograph - Photography, Digital Art, Fine Art

Description

Trichocereus cactus in bloom.
Trichocereus hybrids, sometimes called torch cacti, put on magnificent displays of large, brilliant flowers. Collectors will throw impromptu parties when all their plants bloom on the same day. Locally, blooms may start as early as mid March. However, the first big flush of blooms is usually in early May, followed by more through mid summer. The best cultivars will bloom massively every 10 days to two weeks over a span of three months. There are often occasional flowers in between the big shows, and sometimes continue into autumn. Each flush lasts one to three days. If you want to snarl traffic or cause streams of onlookers or photographers to congregate, these are the cacti you want to plant in your front yard or other public place.

First, a Taxonomic Note: Botanists have lumped most of the members of this large group of South American cacti in to the single huge genus Echinopsis. The former genera included Echinopsis (sensu stricto), Lobivia, Trichocereus, Helianthocereus, Soehrensia, and a few more. Many horticulturists, including the authors, do not accept this. The great majority of species easily fit into one of the former genera, and each has distinctly different growth forms, flowers, and cultural needs (Figure 2). A brief summary of the most commonly grown ones:
Echinopsis (sensu stricto): Smallish globular plants (mostly 6-12 inch tall stems) with large, white or pale pastel, nocturnal, moth-pollinated flowers with very long floral tubes. The dried fruit can be easily crumbled to release the seeds.
Lobivia: Small globular plants with small, brightly colored, diurnal, bee-pollinated flowers with shorter tubes than those of Echinopsis. Same fruits as Echinopsis.
Trichocereus: Some restrict this genus to the columnar shrubs to trees with very large, white, nocturnal, moth- or bat-pollinated flowers with long tubes. Examples include T. terscheckii, pachanoi, and spachianus. The seeds are embedded in a sticky mucilage. Whether harvested wet or dry, the pulp must be macerated in a large volume of water to extract the seeds. Some taxonomists include the next
genus in Trichocereus:
Helianthocereus: Medium-sized plants resembling oversized North American hedgehog cacti (Echinocereus) that bear large, brightly colored, diurnal, bee-pollinated flowers with short tubes (a few have white, nocturnal flowers). Fruit same as in Trichocereus.
Soehrensia: A small genus of about 10 species of mostly single-stemmed plants resembling North American barrel cacti (Ferocactus). They bear smallish, brightly colored, diurnal, bee-pollinated flowers with almost no tubes.

Echinopsis and Lobivia are mostly high elevation Andean species. They require special care to grow them well in the extreme heat of the low desert. On the other hand, Trichocereus and Helianthocereus are very tolerant of both hard frosts and desert heat. They are superbly adapted to growing in our climate. (When we use trichocereus without the italics, we are referring mostly to Helianthocereus, Soehrensia, and their hybrids, including with Echinopsis and Lobivia. Except for T. spachianus, the arborescent Trichocereus species will not hybridize with others in this group.)
http://www.tucsoncactus.org/html/growing_succulents_in_the_desert_column_May_2010.html
All images are copyright � Lucinda Walter. The materials contained may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way, shape or form. All rights are reserved. Copying, altering, displaying or redistribution of any of these images without written permission from the Artist is strictly prohibited.

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March 19th, 2014

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