We spent part of our winter in Arizona. The landscaping in our yard is more aptly called hardscaping since it is mostly paving stones and rock. There are a number of green plants – most of them of the prickly variety. Here they are, up close in all their spiny glory.
Golden Barrel Cactus
Fishhook Barrel Cactus
Possibly a type of Hedgehog Cactus
Saguaro Cactus
Prickly Pear Cactus
There is one animal that is not intimidated by the Prickly Pear Cactus. It is the Javelina. It looks much like a Wild Boar, but it isn’t. I haven’t actually seen Javelinas in our yard, but I do know what they dine on – my Prickly Pear Cactus!
He’d always had a quickening of the heart when he crossed into Arizona and beheld the cactus country. This was as the desert should be, this was the desert of the picture books, with the land unrolled to the farthest distant horizon hills, with saguaro standing sentinel in their strange chessboard pattern, towering supinely above the fans of ocotillo and brushy mesquite.
– Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man –
Amusives 