Opportunistic

Yesterday morning, I was excited to find one of my Pincusion Cactus in full bloom! Instead of the solid pink petals that I’m used to seeing, though, this one had white stripes. I’ve seen this pattern before and always wondered so I wrote my botanist guru, Steve Jones. He confirmed that they are indeed the same species as my other…..Graham’s Pincushion. I also asked for the reason they are blooming so much more than last year and here’s his response: ”

They flower any time they get water – seems to me that within a week of any good rainfall from April to September I start to see flowers. They’re opportunistic – they flower like ocotillos leaf out, in response to rain. The ASDM manual has this note (very bottom of the page):

“The flowers can be used as a monsoon season rain gauge. The buds are produced during the preceding summer growing season and usually remain dormant through the winter, spring, and foresummer. The buds burst into bloom 5 days after the first rain of the summer and last about a week. Plants produce a second and sometimes a third flush of flowers after subsequent rains.”

We haven’t been getting the rain the rest of the valley has been getting but I do give them supplemental water so that explains the blooms!