Some mini cacti in my collection.

Is my online persona much different from my Real Life persona?
No, because both talk about cacti ad nauseum. Today it will be miniature cacti.



This little one is called:
Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele ssp. krainzianus v. minimus






This one is:
Turbinicarpus klinkerianus
I grew these from seed.





This one is not true peyote (Lophophora williamsii) but the closely related:
Lophophora diffusa var. koehresii
It does not contain mescaline in significant levels.







This next ones name refers to its resemblence to peyote:
Turbinicarpus lophophoroides






Like these? Here are a couple good Turbinicarpus links:

Here is a good gallery.

This one is the best. Be sure to check out the excellent page on neotony.

Here is another site with photos and synonym lists.

Blue Witch Nightshade.
Solanum Xanti
Best smelling of the Solanum I have encountered. The green spots at the corolla base indentify it as sp. Xanti but I also found mutant flowers.










Abnormal flower with a cleft corolla and brown markings instead of green.
Other flowers on the same inflorescence were typical. I wonder why two flowers were aberrant? In October the humidity here is so low that the sky is actualy bluer. Fire season.

Granite Spiny lizard
Sceloporus Orcutti ♀






The so-called third, or parietal, eye is visable here in the center of her head.
It is believed to be able to distinguish two different colors, blue and green, possibly to tell the time of day.

I captured this bit of natural conflict between a green crab spider and a wasp last month. The spiders eggs are hatching right now. This is taking place on a Laurel Sumac bush (Malosma Laurina).

La Jolla -Scrpps Knoll

My sunday morning expedition:

Ferocactus Viridescens only grows along the coast south of Torrey Pines state park. It only grows in places with million dollar views (scroll down to see) so it only grows in a few reserves that were not developed.




Here is a close up of a seedling.







Fruit














Dudleya edulis is called lady fingers. The succulent leaves are edible but have a chalky after-taste.






This looks just like a Sedum but it is Suaeda Californica or sea-blite.
It is a leaf succulent not found in any collection by succulent collectors.
It grown right up to the high tide line and can stand salty soil that kills everything else.
The seeds are edible (it is related to quinoa) and could be useful to grow in salty soils.





10,000 years ago there was a large village of the La Jollan culture on the left which has been submerged by the higher sea level now. The cliffs on the right are full of inhumations some 10,000 years old. They are full of skelletons. See the tiny humans here? Very high cliffs. I see peregrine falcons here often and dolphins and seals are easy to spot looking down from the edge of the cliff. Can you believe i didn't come accross another person here? Perfect weather on a sunday morning and I had the place to myself. The beach below was pretty empty too, what the hell.

Cactus Garden

Want to see some gardens I built for other people?


Here is a cactus garden I built for a nice old English Quaker lady. I think the paver pathway I built turned out nicely. This cactus garden is up against her fire break so it adds to the "defensible space" as protection from wildfires. It worked to save my house!




With agave parryi, opuntia, trichocereus, mammilaria and more.




Yes! This Opuntia Santa-rita is actual this purple and it is supposed to look like that. Beautiful!




Lacey white glochids on an opuntia- don't touch!






A mature red barked manzanita with an echinocactus on the right.





Here is a dry streambed I made Last spring.









Here is my little Propigation Station with agave bulblets and Jumping Cholla - Cylindropuntia Fulgida cuttings.
I got stuck pretty badly on the hand by one.