Queen Of The Night Cactus - Photos In The Arizona Desert

In Search Of A Queen Of The Night Cactus

(Photos From Our Wandering in a Tucson Area Desert - February 4, 2007)

Queen Of The Night Cactus

I begin this page with one of the very last photos taken during our afternoon. My buddy Joel (above) was determined to find a Queen Of The Night Cactus in a desert area of southeast Tucson. According to Joel, the thin, spiny plant is often overlooked because of its stick-like shape. They are also frequently unnoticed because they generally grow below shady and large palo verde trees to take refuge from Arizona's scorching sun.

After wandering in the desert for about an hour on a sunny day in the upper 70's, Joel finally found what he was looking for! That's a great shot of you, Joel! :)

UPDATE: View photos of a flowering queen of the night cactus taken in 2010 here: Blooming Queen Of The Night.

Below are some of the Arizona scenery photos I snapped during our afternoon. I really enjoyed my 4.5 week trip in the Tucson area (with brief excursions to San Diego and southern New Mexico), and below are just a few of my more memorable adventures:

Picacho Peak

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

B&B Cactus Farm (Tucson)

Tall Saguaro

Cacti in Tombstone, AZ

All the best, Steve

The Arizona Desert (Photos)
I will start with some pictures of saguaros. People seem to get most excited about them over other desert cacti.

Look at these crazy chollas! :p)

These particular chollas were displaying some orange and yellow fruit. Pretty neat!

Notice the really thorny cholla that got stuck on my boots!

Here's a golden barrel cactus that grew more horizontally apparently because of heavy branches laying on top of it.

Things got a little crazy with this golden barrel cactus. I pushed my lips as far as I could into the cactus while kissing it. That wasn't too much of a problem, but then when I hugged it, a number of thorns stuck into my shirt and I couldn't pull myself off of it for a few seconds. It hurt and it ripped my t-shirt a bit. :(

Definitely check out my cactus kissing page to for an explanation about why I do this! :o)

Here are a couple of shots of the mountains around Tucson.
TOP: The Santa Catalina Mountains to the north.
BOTTOM: The Rincon Mountains east of Tucson.

Great job finding that "queen of the night" Joel! ;)

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