The fruit, about an inch and a half long, is armed with numerous clusters of short brown-tipped spines. When ripe it is light yellow, pink, or purple-red, and the thorns, then, are easily rubbed off leaving the surface entirely smooth. The mature fruit served with cream and sugar is delicious and suggests strawberries; it is used as an article of food and for barter among the Indians and Mexicans. A large plant bears one or two quarts of the luscious fruit, in late May or early June. Hence this cactus, too, is called the Indian or Desert Strawberry Cactus. The species is named in honor of August Fendler, who collected extensively in New Mexico and Arizona in the early days.
Rainbow Cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus)
Southeastern Arizona and Sonora
Here is a real beauty, Echinocereus rigidissimus, the lovely Rainbow Cactus, so called from the many colors of her spines arranged in bands a half-inch to an inch wide, one following another in quick succession extending around the plant. This beautiful desert growth is a great favorite in cactus collections, but unfortunately, when removed from her natural habitat, she pines away and is short-lived. The scientific name rigidissimus refers to her spines, which are noticeably stiff.
Among rocks and stones on hillsides in exposed and sunny locations, we find the beauteous Rainbow, her bright rose-purple flowers with their yellowish eyes, large and showy and funnel-shaped. Solitary they are, and grow only a few on a plant; and the rose-pink and purple petals and stamens, with their orange-red anthers forming a circle about the rose-purple style and olive-green stigmas, are a sight truly admired by every one fortunate enough to see it in full bloom. The Mexicans have nicknamed her Cabecita del Viejo because she clings to the foothills and rocky mountain slopes. Four to fifteen inches tall, at a little distance she appears banded with white or cream-colored, yellow, rose-purple, pink, or maroon-purple bands, while the two dozen or so ridges appearing vertically around the stems about a half-inch apart are green and yellow-green in hue. The beautifully mottled thorns, a half-inch or so long, are pressed closely against the plant, arranged mostly in two comb-like groups and forming a continuous dense spiny layer over the entire growth. The last spines of each season are rose-purple or maroon, the earlier ones pink, yellowish, or whitish; and thus are formed the zones of color extending around the plant, the brighter or deeper hues of the spines appearing during periods of slow growth, the yellow or whitish coloring during the time of faster growth in the spring. The inner part of the stems of rigidissimus, along with the sweet and pulpy ripe fruit, is relished and eaten by Indians and Mexicans, who consider it a rare delicacy.
Short Spined Strawberry Cactus (Echinocereus Bonkeræ)
Southeastern Arizona
We are nearing the beautiful Pinal Mountains in southeastern Arizona, nearing also the end of our journey over the broad expanse of the Arizona-California desert. After all it is one desert; California, Arizona—what are mere geographical lines or names in the desert land of plants and flowers, in that vast natural amphitheater of the great Southwest? Here in the long low rays of the afternoon sun we see at a distance the purple haze gathering over the mountain peaks, and we know that our day’s work is nearing completion with the coming of the beautiful sunset hour. And here it is, four thousand feet up in the rocky foothills, that we espy the rare little beauty Echinocereus Bonkeræ, named for Frances Bonker, one of the authors of this book. It is a new Strawberry Cactus, growing in the foothills and low mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona, and was discovered only last year in the Pinal Mountains and also near Oracle, Arizona. It differs from all other species of its kind in that all the spines are very short, and its fruit is sweet and more nearly the size of a strawberry than any of the others; also the spines do not suggest the Hedgehog Cactus, so that the common name of Short Spined Strawberry Cactus is given to Bonkeræ, as more nearly resembling a strawberry in its fruit than any other of the Strawberry Cactus clan. The juicy, luscious berries, less than an inch long, are delicious as jam or served cold with cream; they are always the first to appear in the spring.
Often but two inches tall, sometimes reaching six or eight inches, this little Strawberry Cactus grows in clumps of two or three to ten stems which are densely ridged and tubercled. The flowers, nearly three inches long and about the same in width, are a deep rose-purple, and appear in April, the first of the purple-flowered species to bloom. It is easily recognized by its many ridges and very short spines, all less than a half-inch long, which are whitish or yellowish when young and reddish brown when mature, and by its bright purple blossoms, borne well up on the stems, which open in the forenoon and close in late afternoon, lasting for several days. Under cultivation the larger plants grow as much as three inches in a season.
