National Geographic Magazine/Volume 31/Number 6/Our State Flowers/The Cactus

The Cactus (Echinocereus fendleri (Engelm.) Ruempl.)


In choosing the cactus as New Mexico's flower favorite the school children of that State honored a family of plants which are almost exclusively Americans. If a few species that originated in Africa be excepted, the cacti are limited to America.

The Echinocereus fendleri is but one of many of the types of cacti to be found on New Mexico's broad mesas and desert valleys. Looking like a cross between a pineapple, a cucumber, and a green pepper, and crowned with a brilliant flower whose red petals, yellowish stamens, and green pistil make a color symphony, this species is always a favorite. It is a sort of vegetable porcupine, ready to give every comer a reception that will not soon be forgotten. Many an admirer, seeing it for the first time, has plucked a blossom to his sorrow, for the tiny hairy thorns stick to the fingers in a most irritating fashion.

The cacti are one of the most interesting family of plants, containing many remarkable species. There is the barrel cactus, or visnaga, which often comes to the traveler's rescue in the desert. The barrel cactus acts as a cistern, collecting within itself reservoirs of water, which the traveler in the desert may tap. Then there is the coccus cacti, which is cultivated in Mexico and Central America as food for the cochineal insect, from which dyes for making carmine and scarlet are derived. The spines of another cactus are used as tooth-picks by the American Indians. Then there are the opuntias, which include the prickly pear or Indian fig cactus. Several species are cultivated in southern Europe and northern Africa for their sweet, juicy fruit.

Source: —, ed. (June 1917), “Our State Flowers: The Floral Emblems Chosen by the Commonwealths”, The National Geographic Magazine 31(6): 498–499. (Illustration from page 513.)