These two spectacular desert giants with their clumps of erect branches are sufficiently similar to be readily confused at first glance. However, the stems of the Organpipe (L. thurberi) are longer and contain more but much smaller ridges than do the stems of the Sinita or “Whisker cactus.” The name “Sinita” (meaning old age) refers to the long, gray, hair-like spines covering the upper ends of the Sinita stems.
Both species are night-blooming, the flowers, which appear along the sides and at the tips of the stems, closing soon after sunrise the following morning. Fruits of the Organpipe are harvested by the Papago Indians.
Although these two species of cactus are restricted to a very limited area, they are sufficiently spectacular and interesting to be considered worthy of inclusion in this booklet. It was to protect these species, threatened with extinction in the United States, and other rare and interesting forms of desert plants and animals, that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was established.
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Mammillaria microcarpa
Common names: PINCUSHION CACTUS, FISHHOOK CACTUS, CORKSEED CACTUS, NIPPLE CACTUS, BUTTON CACTUS Arizona desert: (Mammillaria microcarpa). Lavender. June-July. California desert: (Mammillaria tetrancistra). Lavender. June-July. Texas-New Mexico deserts: (Mammillaria micromeris). Lavender. Early summer. Cactus family. Size: Cucumber-shaped and 3 to 10 inches high.
Unlike blossoms of many of the Cacti, flowers of the little Mammallarias often last for several days. Blossoms are pink or lavender, occasionally yellow, while the fruits are finger- or club-shaped and red. Being small and forming low clumps, or with single pincushion-like stems, they often escape attention except when glorified with bright, comparatively large flowers, which often form a crown around the top of the plant. The long spines are curved at the tips giving the plant the appearance of being covered with unbarbed fishhooks.
The Pincushion cacti, of which there are a number of species throughout the Southwest, occur in dry, sandy hills from southern Utah to western Texas and in southern California and northern Mexico. The red fruits are bare, without scales, spines, or hairs.
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