Echinocactus intertextus, the Interlacing Spine Cactus, signals our attention first, a rare and brightly flowered little fellow. It is interesting to note that the name intertextus refers to the numerous radial interlacing spines covering this Visnagita in two or three whorls, and on the older plants forming a dense lacework over the entire plant. Only an inch and a half tall in many cases, sometimes reaching the height of six inches, his stems are deeply ridged in spirals a half-inch or so apart, of a dull green or yellow-green and scurfy. The thorns are stout and awl-shaped, abruptly pointed, and translucent pink-yellow with darker tips, becoming dull gray or black near the base of the plant; twenty or thirty spines radiating like the spokes of a wheel and interlocking with others, four or five centrals, dull gray with reddish brown tips. Intertextus thrives in rocky, gravelly soils at altitudes of four or five thousand feet; his bright and beautiful bloom may be glimpsed from quite a distance, light purplish flowers with yellow stamens, growing in clusters near the centers or tops of the stems. The blossoms of Echinocactus nearly always appear in a circle around the head of the plant, just above the young spine-bearing areolas, the flowers continuing to develop on the inside of the circle in areolas that are continuously forming by further growth of the plant.
Purple Spined Visnagita (Echinocactus erectocentrus)
Southeastern Arizona
Purple Spined Visnagita is a gayly tinted beauty which grows only in limited areas. Indeed not only is it rare and beautiful but the species is fast disappearing; indicative perhaps that Nature in her wise prescience of coming events is already taking care of the problem of overproduction. The flowers are white or flesh-color diffused with pink, most delicately shaded sometimes with a hint of lavender, and are very lovely and fragrant though they do not open fully; they come in clusters surmounting the stem, opening in the forenoon and closing in the afternoon, for four or five days in April and May. It is not strange that the deeper-tinted blossoms appear on the plants with the more brightly hued spines. The latter form a dense, almost impenetrable coat over the entire plant, giving a dull rose-purple effect which can be seen unmistakably for two or three hundred feet or farther in its arid rocky habitat. Purple Spined Visnagita is much in demand by collectors, being easily recognized at a distance by the eighteen or so brightly colored thorns; because of these gayly hued spines it is one of the handsomest of all our smaller cacti, sometimes compared to that beautiful splash of color, the Rainbow Cactus, near which it is often found growing.
Traveler’s Friend (Echinocactus Covillei)
Southern and Western Arizona, and Sonora
The Traveler’s Friend! This name sounds rather interesting, and upon examination Echinocactus Covillei is found to merit his friendly title. If one gingerly cuts off the top of the plant, crushing the fleshy part into a pulpy mass with a handy stick, cool refreshing water is revealed, fit for drinking and sufficient for one person. This Bisnaga has proven a good friend to the desert wanderer, but it is Nature, the marvelous architect, who is our real friend, by providing an ingenious structure which enables this cactus to store water in its fleshy-ribbed stems which grow from one to five feet tall and a foot or so in diameter; thereby permitting it to thrive and blossom in the terrible heat of the desert, and during the long, long seasons of drought to save many an Indian and other desert traveler from dying of starvation or thirst out on the broad mesas in this land of blazing sunlight. Also, if you are in cactus country and should ever become lost on the desert, look for Covillei, for he always leans toward the southwest and when other signs fail you can depend upon him to guide you in the right direction. Many a lost Indian or Mexican has obtained water and directions from Covillei, the Traveler’s Compass, and thus has saved his life through knowledge of desert lore, while a stranger schooled in books but lacking the wisdom which comes from long association with desert life could easily lose himself in the arid wastes, only to perish anon.
This Traveler’s Friend is a handsome fellow; the crimson and orange-red hues of the brilliant blossoms shade into the yellow and purple-red tints of the style and its branches, harmonizing with eight or nine pink and reddish spines and their translucent yellow tips, a splash of gay rainbow hues against the drab background of rocky, gravelly soil along the foothills of southern and western Arizona and out on the mesas of Northern Mexico. In old Mexico the natives still utilize this Bisnaga by making from it the delicious cactus candy which is so prized by tourists, and seized upon with delight as one of their first discoveries in the land of the cactus clan.
Turk’s Head (Echinocactus horizonthalonius)
Southern Arizona, Northern Mexico, and Western Texas