By Chris Deem – To see, to touch. A smell, a taste, a sound. A perception is an awareness gained through our senses. Intuition can also be gained through perception, yet the process remains a mystery. My favorite example of perception is from an old Vincent Price movie. In the movie, we see a frail girl with long …
By Chris Deem – The silent land waits, entombed in ice. High above, a ghostly green aurora coils in the darkness. Now, a thin streak of purple joins thee more luminous green as solar winds struggle against a powerful magnetic field. Below in the darkness, a whirlwind of ice-chilled air coils out across black waters. …
By Joe Robertson – Argentina is a land of grasslands that extend to all horizons. To the south is Patagonia, its flat plains swept by a constant wind that is known to have driven people mad. To the west are the Andes – their tall peaks separate Argentina and Chile. In the northwest, there is a mixture of lowlands, hot deserts, …
By Chris Deem – A strong gust of wind deposited a fine layer of dust on the dirt – encrusted segments of a Maihueniopsis archiconoidea. Five small, grayish-brown spiders were also deposited there by the same strong wind. On two of the young arachnids, long, bone-white silken strands were still …
By Pat Mahon – Some of the strangest plants in the cacti family seem to belong to the curious genus Maihueniopsis. Most commonly referred to and formerly classified as Puna, they are some of the most diverse cacti of the opuntiads. The genus Maihueniopsis is closely allied to and sometimes formerly …
By Pam Schnebelen – Dorothy Weitz has had a huge influence on my interest in plants. Dorothy was an excellent propagator who inspired my passion for this part of our hobby. Dorothy’s seed-grown cacti were famous for their blue ribbons in the HSCSS show, and Dorothy was generous in sharing her propagating …
By Chris Deem – One hundred and eighty million years ago, a massive group of floating phytoplankton reached the Mexican shore. For millions of years thereafter, their remains mixed with quartz, carbon dioxide and calcium carbonate from shells and seawater. Eventually, some of the phytoplankton, now existing as …
By Pat Mahon – Since many of the larger cacti have already been discovered, there are plenty of diminutive species still hiding away. One of these happens to be a gorgeous new Mammillaria species with a growing habit simlar to that of Ariocarpus. This new species does not resemble rocks and gravel though, but …
By Barbara Gardner – Mammillaria bombycina – “cina” or silk, referring to the sheen on the spines – is a reliable plant of cultivation from Coahuila, Mexico. It is at first a globular plant, becoming cylindrical in age and forming huge clumps. The stems, or cone-shaped tubercles, are up to 8 inches tall and 2 inches …
By Don Lesmeister – Dear readers: I would like to share this strange plea for help from somewhere in Mexico. The handwritten note was scribbled on a piece of torn brown paper. Also why it came to me I do not know. This, however, does not detract from its message. Read carefully! …