Monday, June 8, 2009

Barrel Cactus and Phoenician

The Phoenician Resort also has great cactus. Here is a photo of a barrel cactus with the pineapple shaped fruit on top.

The flower on top of the fruit has withered away. I used to pull one of these fruit off the cactus and eat the black seeds out of them when I walked through the desert when I was a kid. Each one of these fruit are packed full of little black seeds.

I believe this barrel is the genus ferocactus type of cactus. We have a lot of barrel cacti in Arizona as we are part of the Sonoran Desert.
 
Ferocactus means fierce and they survive everywhere. Sometimes barrel cactus fall over and people mistakenly think it is from water weight. Not true. Barrel cactus follow the sun and are often called "Compass Cactus." 

19 comments:

Cezar and Léia said...

Hi Julie! In fact I didn't know much about this important plant "Ferocactus".Very interesting information and beautiful shot!
Have a nice week!
Your place is very special!
Léia

Olivier said...

superbe couleur, on dirait des petits ananas, j'aime beaucoup
superb colour, they would say small pineapples, I likes very much

Jim Klenke said...

I love the color, how big is he fruit?

brattcat said...

I like thinking about you walking through the desert as a girl knowing what was safe to eat and helping yourself to nature's offerings.

Sharon said...

I like the angle on this shot. You can really see the pineapple shape to the fruit.

B SQUARED said...

Most interesting.

Prospero said...

They do look like little pineapples. That is so neat. (I'm a cactus lover, can you tell?)

Kate said...

I think that part of the fascination with cacti and their flowers is the fact that the plants are hardy and seem unable to produce such beautiful blooms. Your information is a welcome addition to the photo, and I loved the story of you walking thru the desert as a child and eating the seeds. A great image!

Lowell said...

Beautiful. I've learned a couple of things...I always thought it was the water...and I've never heard of eating seeds. What did they taste like?

Unknown said...

Fantastic shot. Love the colors.

Lois said...

That is a wonderful angle on that picture and the first thing I thought of when I saw it was pineapple!

Buenos Aires Photoblog said...

Beautiful pic! This is an astounding plant. I do enjoy eating prickly pears. You wrote you ate them when you were a kid. Don't you like them anymore?

Buenos Aires Photo

Frank said...

Beautiful shot. Just great. Thanks.

Leena said...

Hello from Finland and greetings from China :)
Our trip was really worth traveling, just perfectly succeeded.
I have published some China photos on my Aminus3. pages.

Cactus is such a special plant, full of thorns and then suddenly flowering beautifully - hm, makes me think :)

Sixpence and A Blue Moon said...

Beautiful cactus! What does it taste like? I bet there are some health benefits that come with eating this?

Don and Krise said...

I have to admit, I too immediately saw the photo & thought pineapple. Great angle on this one and thanks for the factoids. :)

Unseen India Tours said...

They Look Really Big !! I Have Never Seen Such Cactus Before.Thanks For Showing The Less Covered Things...I have statred a new website And Would Like You To Check It .Unseen Rajasthan
for travels and tours.

Unknown said...

I have one of this with curved, very hard spines and I love it. It is a slow grower, but it's much bigger than it was when I bought it 6 years ago.
Great shot!

Stefan Jansson said...

Walking through the desert eating that seed as a kid. Cool. Didn't know about the Compass Cactus. And it's a quality shot.

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