Pincushion Cactus
Pincushion Cactus
This plant is, of course, a member of the cactus
family (Cactaceae), a huge group of about 1,200
species that's characteristic of America's deserts.
The name was derived from the Greek (kaktos), a
spiny plant of the Mediterranean. The generic name
Coryphantha means "top-flowered" concerning the
placement of flowers. The specific epithet vivipara
means "sprouting from the parent plant" in botanical
Latin, in reference to the formation of new buds
on the old stems. Pincushion cactus were first
collected (for science) by the English-American
botanist Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859).
I found this cacti growing in the Pinyon pine-Juniper Woodlands, at approximately 5,000 feet east of Payson, Arizona.
June 5, 2008
lcarreau
on Jun 6, 2008 3:28 pm
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