On 2011-02-19, James Waldby wrote:
On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:31:48 -0600, aasberry wrote:
On 19 Feb 2011 01:49:54 GMT, "DoN. Nichols" ... wrote:
[ ... ]
And one style of cactus which was around where I grew up I
called "watch-out cactus" because the needles had a dry husk on them,
and when you pulled a needle out of self, the husk stayed around nearly
forever in your skin. The husk could provide a continuing path of air
through the walls of the tire and tube.
If anyone really knows the name of that cactus (insanely
branching and re-branching bits about the diameter of a pencil or a bit
fatter), I would love to have identification. This was in South Texas,
sort of between San Antonio and Laredo, FWIW.
...
See if you recognize it here.
http://thehibbitts.net/Cactus/TXCact...Accounts4.html
DoN, among those links that I looked at, the bottom 2 pictures
on http://thehibbitts.net/Cactus/TXCactus/C.hesteri.html
appear to have lots of thin branching parts.
Way too low. Think at least shoulder height, where you could
accidentally brush against it if you were not observant. :-) It would go
about four or five inches, then branch -- repeatedly. I don't remember
the parts near the ground being fatter -- but they really must have been
to support the load of all the branches.
However, the range
map seems to show only a small patch near Sanderson or Marathon
(north of Big Bend) so there may be better matches for what you
remember. Eg, range of Pencil Cactus seems to include Laredo:
http://thehibbitts.net/Cactus/TXCactus/E.poselgeri.html (but
it doesn't seem to do much branching).
Nope! Not at all. and the thorns should have a length about
three to four times the diameter of the stem.
I think that I'll try to contact him, and suggest that he visit
LaSalle county. It *may* be that this never develops photogenic
blossoms, which seems to be the primary focus of the web site. :-) I
know that *I* never saw the blossoms -- but there were times of the year
when I was less likely to go into the place where I knew some were.
O.K. I just sent him an e-mail. We'll see what comes of it.
Thanks much,
DoN.
--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. |
http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---