Stickers

    I have mentioned several times that things can be beautiful to us only after they have ceased to be threatening. A tiger in a zoo is beautiful in its power and grace. A tiger in your back yard where the kids are playing--probably not.

   Botanists tell us that thorns are merely the evolutionary adaptations of leaves as they strive to preserve precious bodily fluids. But if you get stuck by one, you are not likely to shrug it off as a mere leaf run amok.  For that matter, shrugging it off can be a difficult task. Veterans of desert areas often advise carrying a comb--not to adjust your coiffure but to remove thorns. Fingers are a bad idea. As Bre'r Rabbit learned from the Tar Baby, use of hands just makes it worse.  

   Still, some people grow decorative cacti in their homes. In the desert Southwest, cacti are often foundation plants the way we grow yews or azaleas. Cacti come in a wide assortment of sizes, shapes, and blossoms. I can't think of one, though, that comes without stickers. 

   

                      

Prickly pear may turn purple in response to cooler

than normal temperatures. Santa Rita is a cultivated

variety specifically intended to be purple.

For much of the year, ocotillo look like thorny, dead sticks.

After a little desert rain, it quickly leafs out...

...followed by bright red blossoms...

...then the leaves turn red and gold before dropping. The process

may be repeated several times a year depending on rainfall.

Occasionally, cacti have genetic mutations, called

crestations. that result in accordion folds that run amok.