You seem to desperately want to be told yes, cacti are evolved as vicious predators, and there's lots of evidence everywhere. No! No! You completely misrepresent me. I am not desperate for, nor do I even prefer, either answer. I am merely making the point that if hooked-spined cacti are associated ...

KarlR wrote:

graham wrote:...As an aside, the Saguaro is known to have killed at least two people in the US. One was killed when, after having shot the poor plant full of bullets, it toppled over and crushed him.

There does, then, appear to be some form of justice in the USA!

If "don't know" is a possible outcome, then it's not a question with a binary answer is it? Any attempt at receiving a binary answer will merely ignore complexity of the topic and be largely worthless. But if you want a binary answer that belies the complexity of the topic, then here it i...

Whilst I would be one of the first to agree that 'survival of the fittest' does not imply that those who pump iron shall inherit the Earth, this is surely not the point. I posed and reposed a question with a binary answer which I still await. If 'don't know' is the only currently available response ...

Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus is commonly known as the Cactus Wren! So presumably a distant relative from South West to central Mexico. This bird often nests in cactus plants, using the spines for protection from predators. That could well be but remember the remora. It associates with sharks but...

I was hoping that someone would have picked up my concluding question – namely, “Is there any field evidence of predation?” We can ask, “What is the purpose of a spider's web? Is its evolutionary significance neutral? Did spiders just learn to make webs in order to while away the time before televis...

A recent upsetting incident led me to wonder whether there is a dark side to our spiky charges. A wren got into one of my greenhouses. I found it, entangled and struggling, on a mature Mammillaria bocasana. It took twenty minutes or so to free it. All the entrapping spines had to be individually det...

Thanks for that, Ray. It would be interesting to hear from 'Peter from Shropshire' because I too live in Shropshire. He cannot therefore live far from me and his experience with hundreds of Copiapoas would be invaluable. I certainly have to do something to stem my present Copiapoa loss rate. Reducin...

Nearly all my cacti are thriving. The loss rate is gratifyingly low - apart, that is, from the Copiapoas. Things started well this season. Growth was good and most flowered. Then the odd plant would suddenly change from a healthy specimen into a discoloured spongy mass that finished up on the compos...

In 2012 we had a heatwave in May. Actually, it turned out to be our summer but, in the short period it lasted, my cacti suffered severely from scorching. A number of my Copiapoas were damaged together with several eriosyce and all five of my Strombocactus disciformis. So as not to miss out, a Euphor...