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[cactuswatcher]

Begun by the ever-vivacious ann1962 and inspired by the thought-provoking masqthephlsphr

Since I've got a free account I only get to have three icons at once. Hence I don't change them very often.

This one, my default, is not a cactus or an artichoke as someone once thought. It's an Agave parryi truncata. It is indeed bluish-green. I like it, because it's a pretty plant. When I took the picture a year ago in the winter it was about the size of a dinner plate. It's bigger now and has a baby sucker agave growing nearby. When it gets bigger I'll move the little one some place else in the yard so it will have plenty of space to grow. I have another one like this in the front yard, and several other kinds of agave around the place. Their waxy leaves go well with my cacti and the softer leafed yucca that I have. Despite their nickname 'century plants' agaves don't live as long as many other desert plants. But the suckers or offsets as they are called in polite circles will keep them growing in areas where the seeds will refuse to germinate.

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[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

This one is a Echinocactus grusoni, better know as a golden barrel or a Mother-in-law's seat. I have three of them. This one is the biggest and the one with the least clutter nearby. This is one of those cacti you can probably get no matter where you live, even in Europe. They will grow happily just about anywhere they can get warmth and water. Unfortunately they do not grow naturally from seed at all well. They originally grew only in a single canyon in Mexico which was recently flooded by a reservoir. But since they are cute and grow from seed easily with a little human help, they are probably the most common cacti in the world, except for prickly-pears which, let's face it, are nasty weeds a lot of places.

In a pot a golden barrel will stay fairly small because it will take forever to grow big with limited sunlight. Out in the sun here in the desert one can get three feet (1 meter) across and nearly as tall. It's not the biggest of the barrels, but it does get to be one of the large ones. This particular specimen is about six inches (150 mm) across.