BCSS - Forum

Hi Liz, The area is more than 320 km away and that is over mountains and valleys and, although it is not unheard off, to have that range for some Echeveria, it has not been found in between. According to field numbers other species are E. morannii, E. rosei and E. carminea and from Pilbeam's book they do not look similar at all. Other contenders are Sedum macdougallii and S. conzattii but I know so little about them that I still do not know what species it is. Only two were found. Here is the picture of the other one. It looks though that it produces few leaves. Thanks for your help.

We had planned to go South, towards the pacific coast and then travel SW all the way to Sonora, but we were told there was no transport up to a certain point further South. So we had to return North which meant we had to pass again the troubled city of Oaxaca, get to Mexico city and leave from there. We stopped just a few km North of Miahuatlan. We found Stenocereus treleasei. This columnar cactus is not known from the wild and botanists assert that it is just a variant of Stenocereus stellatus. S. Stellatus has about 8-12 ribs and S. treleasei has about 14 to 20 ribs. Both have the same type of flower with S.treleasei having less branches. It may have been a selectively cultivated plant having more ribs, hence more fruits. Here, there were both type of cacti. Also found were, Coryphantha retusa, Cylindropuntia species, the ever present Ferocactus recurvus and Mammillaria karwinskiana. These types were the prettiest I have seen so far. Also another branching Ceroid perhaps, Myrtillocactus shenckii.

Great photos , thanks for sharing your trip

Next stop Durango city so that we would journey to Coneto pass in the state of Durango. We explored a hill near the city and discovered it was being mined for iron oxide. A security guard came and told us it was private property and we had to leave. On another hill we found Mammillaria heyderi ssp. gummifera. We eventually traveled to near Coneto via Guatemape, to search for M. theresae. We were unable to find it perhaps we had not stopped at the right place. We found Echinocereus pectinatus,E. polyacanthus (durangensis) and Stenocactus zacatecasensis. Lower down we found M. heyderi ssp. gummifera, Thelocactus heterochromus, Coryphantha aff. pseudonickelsiae and Opuntia leucotricha.

Hi Amante
I liked the picture of Echeveria nodulosa. Pictures of Echeverias in habitat are always very welcome............. Roger

On 13 September we arrived at Yecora in the State of Sonora to search for Mammillaria saboae fa. haudeana. It was not very difficult to find them as they are very close to the village. We also found M. wrightii ssp. wilcoxii (M. meridiorosei), Echinocereus tayopensis, Agave polyanthyflora and a Sedum species. Later I hitch-hiked several kilometers West and again found M. saboae fa. haudeana and also Agave polyanthyflora. There were other species of Agave but I could not name them.

That sedum species...wow I am loving your photos and commentary, hope there is more

Still in the State of Sonora, we traveled to Guaymas near the sea of Cortes, with the hope of boarding a ferry to Baja California. We explored the hills surrounding Guaymas, finding Ferocactus emoryi (convillei) with the rarer yellow flower forms rather than the red forms we are used to. Mammillaria sheldonii (swinglei), I am of the opinion that this plant should be resurrected as M. swinglei as it is very distinctive. Also, finding the rare Echinocereus scopulorum one can hardly not feel sorry for these plants as they are so close to human encroachment. The Giants were represented by Pachycereus pringli, Carnegea gigantea, Stenocereus thurberi and Lophocereus schottii. This last species being referred now to the Genus Pachycereus.

The ferry from Guaymas was canceled because at the time hurricane Lane was approaching. This hurricane was one of the most devastating storms in 2006 costing $202 million in damages but it never reached Guaymas. So, while we contemplated about the fate of Guaymas and whether the ferry would resume the gulf of California crossing, we traveled to a small town near Guaymas called Empalme. Finding more or less the same species as in Guaymas. One must mention here that the Ferocactus convillei seem to start producing fruit when quite young and there was a swarm of caterpillars (no, not butterflies) which I think belong to some species of hawk moths. There were hundreds of them and it was impossible not to squash a few, unfortunately.