Succulents and More™

I had the most amazing day today hiking and exploring in the Waterman Mountains with friend and agave expert Greg Starr, and Ron Parker, the mastermind behind Agaveville and a seasoned agave hunter with a lot of field experience. It was long day full of unforgettable sights of cactus, agaves, and breathtaking scenery. I took enough photos for two or three longer posts, to be served up later in January. Our first stop was a patch of desert near Saguaro National Park . Across the road was a gas station, and all around were the kinds of rural properties that are typical for this part of Arizona—modest houses or mobile homes on an acre or two. This empty lot is one of the few localities in Arizona for Mammillaria thornberi . I found this small, cluster-forming cactus remarkably hard to spot at first because it tends to grow under bushes. After a while, though, even I could spot it. Maybe my desert eyes are finally coming in. Even more remarkable to me were the many fishhook barrel cactu...