We took the Puerto Blanco drive through the park to see what we could learn about the various types of cactus here.
This is the organ pipe cactus for which Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is named. The white flower blooms only one night a year. Bats propagate them.
The bean tree shades the cactus seeds so they have a chance to grow. Once they do so, the new cactus steals all the water causing the bean tree to die.
The ocotillo puts out leaves when it rains but drops them when the rain is done so as to not loose moisture through the leaves.
Other types of cactus found here include the Englemann prickly pear, the Teddybear cholla, and others I was not able to identify by their pictures.
According to the signs there are lots of animals living around here as well but they had enough sense to stay hiding from us during the heat of the day.
Once upon a time…
The above sign says people should not have been able to live here but they did. They even had vegetable gardens. And they weren’t the movie cowboys we tend to think of when seeing vistas like this one of Tillotson Peak
I’ll leave you to ponder this quote from former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
TTYL,
Linda