A cactus is any member of the spine plant family Cactaceae, native to the Americas. They are often used as ornamental plants, but some are also crop plants. Cacti are part of the plant order Caryophyllales, which also includes members like beets, baby’s breath, spinach, amaranth, tumbleweeds, carnations, rhubarb, buckwheat, plumbago, bougainvillea, chickweed and knotgrass.
The cacti are spine plants that grow either as trees, shrubs or in the form of ground cover. Most species grow on the ground, but there is also a whole range of epiphytic species. In most species, except for the sub-family of the Pereskioideae, the leaves are greatly or entirely reduced. The flowers, mostly radially symmetrical and hermaphrodite, bloom either by day or by night, depending on species. Their shape varies from tube-like through bell-like to wheel-shaped, and their size from 0.2 to 15-30 centimeters.
Most of them have numerous sepals, and change form from outside to inside, from bracts to petals. They have stamens in great numbers. Nearly all species of cacti have a bitter sometimes milky sap contained within them. The berry-like fruits may contain few, but mostly many, seeds, which can be between 0.4 and 12 mm long.
The life of a cactus is seldom longer than 300 years, and there are cacti, which live only 25 years. The Saguaro cactus grows to a height of up to 15 meters, but in its first ten years, it grows only 10 centimeters. The “mother-in-law’s cushion” reaches a height of 2.5 meters and a diameter of 1 meter and – at least on the Canaries – is already capable of flowering after 6 years. The diameter of cactus flowers ranges from 5 to 30 cm; the colors are often conspicuous and spectacular.
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Tags: cactus, cactus flowers, flower, mexico, pictures
March 6th, 2009 at 1:44 AM
Beautiful! I wish, though, that the pictures were annotated with the names of the cacti.
March 7th, 2009 at 2:56 AM
All have the same name… Ouch
March 11th, 2009 at 11:59 AM
amazing …
March 12th, 2009 at 1:36 AM
picture #18 was #1 in my book!
March 12th, 2009 at 1:57 AM
Beautiful flower nail
March 12th, 2009 at 2:56 AM
Natures Beauty At its best
March 12th, 2009 at 11:58 AM
I loved those flowers!! I didn’t know that a cactus could have such lovely flowers… If I had known I wouldn’t accidentally killed the one my sister got me…
March 20th, 2009 at 2:59 PM
I would love to know the name and history of how old the caccti will be when they bloom
March 21st, 2009 at 2:56 PM
these pictures of the cactus’s are the most beautiful i have ever seen. who ever took them did a great job. thanks for the beauty
July 11th, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Gorgeous photos. My home is Tucson. I wish you had identified each of them. Like you, I also photograph them.
May 24th, 2010 at 8:58 AM
HI
YOUR SITE IS VERY GOOD
THANKS ALOT
I LIKE TO KHNOW DATE OF UPLOAD YOUR SITE
EXCUSME
MY ENGLISH IS VERY BAD
PLAESE SEND MESSAGE FOR ME WHEN YOU UP TO DATE YOUR SUTE!
BYE
AZAM
May 30th, 2010 at 12:39 AM
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW just WoOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW ….
I wish I had just half of these species….
January 29th, 2011 at 7:01 PM
thanks for giving me a nice treat