Cactus Garden
This shows a broad variety of Cactus plants.
CENTURY PLANT
A stout tall flower stalk, like a candelabrum, grows from the center of a compact rossette of thick ridged, broad gray-greenish leaves.
Flowers: Buds reddish, but open flowers yellow facing upward in clusters near the ends of the branches, each flower with 6 petal-like parts about 3/4" long and 6 stamens attached near upper edge flower tube; Flowers from June to August.
Habitat: Dry rocky slopes
Range: From central Arizona to West Texas, also northern Mexico.
Comments: Century Plants require years to flower, but not a century. They provided Southwestern Indians with food, beverages, fiber, medicine, and lances. Mescal, pulque, and tequila are made from the Mexician species.
GHOST FLOWER
Range
Mojave and Sonoran deserts of southeastern California to southern Nevada and western Arizona.
Habitat
Desert washes and rocky slopes below 2,500 feet.
Flowers Translucent, cream-colored to yellowish flowers bloom February through April. The 1-1/2 inch flower has pink-to-purple dots on the inside surface of 5 ragged lobes which form a cup. Lower petal has a reddish-purple spot with 2 bright yellow stamens curving upward over it.
Description Like the Snapdragon and Penstemon, the Ghost Flower is a member of the Figwort Family (Scrophulariaceae). It is an erect annual which grows 4 to 16 inches high. It has long, hairy, light-green leaves that are elliptical to lanceolate, and grow up to 4 inches long. The Ghost Flower derives its name from the ghostly translucency of its flowers.
