Again the sun is fading over the western rim of the foothills, leaving a flood of glory in his wake, and we are glad to sight the famous old Superstition Mountains, which are not far from Phoenix, Arizona. We hope to find one more baby cactus before the twilight passes into the deepening shadows of night, for then the end of our long hot trek is at hand. Milleri is a handsome fellow of mesa and foothill, boasting rose-purple or pink flowers, a showy Pincushion, reflecting the brightness and beauty of Nature around him, especially the flaming rays of a gorgeous desert sunset; indeed, he most clearly resembles our Sunset Cactus. Seldom alone, he and his companions form in symmetrical clumps, two to nine inches high and two or three inches across, encased in weak slender white spines with swollen pink bases, often curved and bent on their dozen or so spiral rows of interlocking tubercles, the firm hooked central spines of a rich brownish red, appearing black at a distance.
HABITATS
Along the highway from Lake Arrowhead in Southern California toward Victorville and Palm Springs, out on the Mojave Desert, southward to San Diego and old Mexico, we may find these odd little baby cacti blossoming forth in early spring into striking clumps of variegated bloom, dotting the landscape far and wide—their only mission in life, to look beautiful. For above the ordinary tourist trails as high as five thousand feet, farther down in sandy and gravelly places on the foothills and bajadas or mesa-like mountain slopes, and along the lower levels around Los Angeles, California Pincushions make their homes. In sunny exposures where Nature’s boon of rain is scarce, preferring common sand and rock, these tiniest of the Fantastic Clan thrive best.
Out on the great Arizona desert the Pincushion Cacti appear in abundance; the vast stretches contain a surprise for the tourist and the wearied student in these bits of desert growth, peering from between rocks and cobblestones or lying in clumps in crevices of the rocks among the foothills. All colors of the rainbow, it would seem, are woven into exquisite patterns by Nature in her baby cacti, their brilliantly painted flowering segments spreading out in spring array like so many gilded rays of the spectrum and creating the mirage of a gayly tinted rainbow, dazzling the eyes of the traveler as he speeds along the highway across the desert. Deep in the recesses of the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, northward into southern Utah and Nevada, and southward again around the Superstition Mountains in Arizona and the Santa Ritas (near Tucson), these dainty cacti, when in bloom, color the landscape far and near, on the mesas and along the bajadas into Southern California, and far south into old Mexico, where they come forth in dozens of flowering varieties. And here we must leave our tiny symbols of the Cactacea clan, for the shadows are beginning to lengthen; the sun has finished his journey across the western heavens and we bid farewell to our baby cacti, beautiful rainbows of the desert, for to-morrow we continue our journey over sandy arid lands, and travel a different way among the weird Fantastic Clan.
The Pincushion Group; Baby Cacti (Mammillaria and Coryphantha)
How to identify and how they grow
These are funny little ball-like plants, an inch to a foot in diameter and height, often broader than they are tall, the upper surface almost flattened, while the main part of the plant is a carrot-shaped fleshy root. The stems are mostly simple, sometimes branched; they grow singly or occasionally in clusters, and are not ribbed but studded with numerous tubercles spirally arranged. These are the smallest of the Cactaceæ, hence called the Baby Cacti, and are full of star-shaped spines with an extra-long one in each cluster, all thorns hooked over on the ends. The spines are slender but stout, mostly of two kinds and generally less than a half-inch long, sharp and needlelike, and usually with hairs. There are no spicules nor leaves. The flowers are small or medium-sized and open in the forenoon, closing in the afternoon of the same day. The fruit is rather small, is smooth and has no tubercles, scales, nor bracts. These dainty cacti often cling together in groups, and the symmetrical arrangement of the flowers and spines, the brilliant harmony of colorings in both, and the spirally arranged tubercles give the plants a most attractive appearance.
How to grow
Transplant at any season, preferably early in spring, to a southern exposure if possible, in soil similar to that of the native habitat of the plant, irrigate once in two or three weeks sufficiently to keep the soil lightly moist but not wet. Provide some shade for species growing in their native habitats at high altitudes or in partial shade. These plants grow easily from seed sown a quarter- to a half-inch deep in sandy soil mixed with a small amount of ground charcoal and leaf mold in flats or pots, kept slightly moist in part shade. When a half-inch tall they may be transplanted to small pots. They grow indoors and outside.