File:The continent we live on (1961) (20685003305).jpg

Title: The continent we live on
Identifier: continentweliveo00sandrich (find matches)
Year: 1961 (1960s)
Authors: Sanderson, Ivan Terence, 1911-1973
Subjects: Physical geography; Natural history
Publisher: New York : Random House
Contributing Library: New College of California
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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I.IVINC; BARRELS Ihe Barrel cactuses are really extraordinary They arc mostly tub-shaped structures fluted vertically but usually on a slight bias. The ridges bear lines of nodules from which the spines sprout, but some of them also bear hooks Some species grow to a height of ten feet, are four feet in diameter, and weigh Ions. They are believed to live for upward of six hundred years. Even the biggest have only a slender three- to six-inch cylindrical and central woody skeleton and roots that are very shallow and widespread. When rain comes after a drought, they sometimes absorb water so fast and in such quantities that they swell visibly and get so heavy their roots pull out of the softened ground and they topple over; but they may then put out new roots and just go on growing, lying there like stranded grampuses. Their top- pling is encouraged by the curious fact that they almost invariably lean to the southwest, often at an acute angle. It is said that they tend to grow as far as possible with their heads pointing to the sun, which is on an average in that region of the sky for more hours than in any other during the year as a whole in this pan of the worid. There being more drying of the skin on that side than in the comparatively more shady northeast side, the plants tend to lean that way. It is further suggested that the bias in their fluting, which almost invariably goes sinistrally, is due to the head slewing around, as it were, to follow the arc of the fall, winter, and spring sun as it crosses the southern sky from east to west, getting hotter after noon. However, there appear to be some rugged individualists who twist the other way, and still others that don't twist at all. The Hedgehog cactuses are small three- to twelve-inch forms shaped like bunches of prickly cucumbers, and some of them are covered in silver mantles like domes of spider web glistening with dew. One species extends as far north as Montana. About thirty of the total of seventy-five known species have been found in the Sonoran Province. The Pincushions, of which there are several hundred known species, are also extremely numerous. They are mostly small, squat, globular things, sometimes im- mensely spiny, sometimes quite smooth, and they come in the most astonishing colors and shapes, often looking exactly like sea urchins. MOON FLOWERS It is among the night-blooming group of what are called Cerei that we encounter the most impressive and the most odd of all cactuses. Although of great variety, they may be divided into several lots for purposes of recognition: the Giant (known as Pringle's), the Saguaro, and the Organpipe; the long, meander- ing, snaky or vinelike species: and a number of intermediate forms. Not all night-blooming cactuses are Cerei, but all Cerei flower at night. The Giant and the Saguaro may exceed fifty feet in height. The latter has a single, central, upright stem from which sprout side branches that form elbows and then also go upward. Examples up to fifteen tons in weight and estimated to be almost three hundred years old have been found. They often grow so thickly they form forests. In this province they range from sea level to almost five thousand feet, but there are few in the south and they are found mostly just about the bor- The Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia). a woody-stemmed type of yucca that may grow to over forty feet, is a prominent member of the desert flora. 261

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