When the cactuses bloom in Big Bend National Park, their vivid pinks and purples, reds and yellows bring an unforgettable beauty to the rugged Chihuahuan Desert landscape. In fact, many people visit the park just see the cactus blossoms and the wildflowers. If you're one of them, this book will increase your enjoyment by helping you identify the wonders at your feet. And if you've never been to Big Bend when the cactuses are blooming, you'll discover here what you've been missing.

Douglas B. Evans describes twelve kinds of cactus—living rock, topflower, stout-spined, hedgehog, pineapple, button, barrel, fishhook, nipple, chollas and pricklypears, and Texas nipple—and their individual species known to occur in the park. Color photographs taken by Doris Evans and Ro Wauer accompany the species descriptions. As you hike or drive through the park, you can identify most of the cactuses you see simply by leafing through these splendid pictures and then checking the descriptions, which indicate the cactuses' characteristic features and habitat.

To make the book even more useful, Evans also briefly defines the parts of a cactus, explains how scientific names work, and offers a quick introduction to the geography and ecology of Big Bend National Park and the Chihuahuan Desert. With this information, you'll enjoy not only seeing the cactuses of the Big Bend but also being able to tell one from another and knowing just what makes each one special.

Douglas B. Evans of Tucson, Arizona, was Chief Park Naturalist at Big Bend National Park from 1961 to 1966.

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Big Bend and the Chihuahuan Desert
• Meet the Cactus Family
• Glossary
• The Genus Ariocarpus: Living Rock Cactuses
  • Thick fleshy stems underground, flattened top even with ground surface; up to about 5 inches in diameter. Triangular tubercles are warty and fissured. No areoles; no spines. Flowers and fruits on new growth near tip of stem.
• The Genus Coryphantha: Topflower Cactuses
  • Stems solitary or branched, sometimes forming clumps, up to about 8 inches long. Spines usually straight, up to about 2 inches long. Flowers and fruits on new growth at tips of stems. Fruits fleshy at maturity.
• The Genus Echinocactus: Stout-Spined Cactuses
  • The Big Bend species have solitary globose to hemispherical stems with prominent ribs and stout, curved spines. Flowers are large and showy and occur near the growing tips of stems.
• The Genus Echinocereus: Hedgehog Cactuses
  • Cylindrical stems may be solitary or profusely branched, forming dense clusters or mounds. The tubercles are on the 5 to 12 ribs. The stem surface is obscured by the dense covering of spines. Flowers are usually large and showy. Flowers and fruits occur well below tips of stems.
• The Genus Echinomastus: Pineapple Cactuses
  • Egg-shaped stems to about 6 inches long. Dense spines obscure stem surfaces. Flowers usually white to light pink with traces of tan or green.
• The Genus Epithelantha: Button Cactuses
  • Tiny globular to cylindroid stems up to about 1 inch in diameter, rarely to 2 inches long. Minute whitish spines completely obscure stem surface. Tiny flowers occur on tip of stems. Mature fruits are bright red.
• The Genus Ferocactus: Barrel Cactuses
  • The usually solitary columnar stems have several prominent ribs. Flowers and fruits occur near tips of stems. The lone Big Bend species grows to about a foot tall and has prominent tubercles and very long, flexible hooked spines.
• The Genus Glandulicactus: Fishhook Cactuses
  • Stems solitary, globose to cylindroid, dark green, up to about 6 'inches tall. Conspicuous hooked spines to 4 inches long that tend to point upward and look like blades of dried grass. Flowers and fruits near tips of stems.
• The Genus Mammillaria: Nipple Cactuses
  • Stems with prominent and distinct tubercles (nipples). Flowers and fruits occur on old growth, below and around growing stem tip.
• The Genus Neolloydia: Lloyd Stout-spined Cactuses
  • Stems cylindrical to conical, to about 5 inches long, commonly in branched clumps, sometimes solitary. The magenta flowers and the fruits are on new growth near tips of stems.
• The Genus Opuntia: Chollas and Pricklypears
  • Stems composed of chains of connected joints; those with round cylindrical joints are chollas; those with flattened "pads" are pricklypears. Areoles also contain tiny hairlike barbed spines called glochids.
• The Genus Thelocactus: Texas Nipple Cactuses
  • Ovoid stems up to 8 inches tall. Prominent tubercles (nipples) merge into about 8 indistinct ribs. Spines are long, flexible, and reddish. Spectacular large, satiny, fuchsia flowers have scarlet throats.
• Other Possibilities
  • Cactuses that were reported long ago but have not been seen in recent years, or those that may be found in Big Bend National Park but have not yet been observed.
• Index