Sometimes called “Texas golden rainbow,” the yellow pitaya of the Chihuahuan Desert is similar in appearance, except for the color of its blossoms, to the rainbow echinocereus. Quite common in portions of Big Bend National Park, the Stubby, upright stems usually grow singly but sometimes occur in small clusters. The term _pitaya_ or _pitahaya_ is commonly applied along the Mexican border to cactuses bearing edible fruits. In Texas the term refers to the low-growing floral hedgehogs; in Arizona to the columnar cactuses. Pricklypear cactuses having soft, juicy, edible fruit are known as _tunas_.
_Echinocereus dasyacanthus_ Cactus Family
[Illustration: YELLOW PITAYA ECHINOCEREUS]
Massive, cylindrical, and covered with clusters of stout spines, the central one hook-shaped, these desert giants are often mistaken for young saguaros. There are several species, all locally called _bisnagas_, with some quite small and others attaining a height of 5 or 6 feet. The majority produce clusters of orange to red flowers on their crowns in late summer, but the yellow-flowered California barrel cactus blossoms in the spring. Their tendency to lean toward the light causes many of these heavy-bodied plants to tip in a southwesterly direction, giving them the name “compass cactus.” This group is naively believed by some people to contain water. Actually the slimy, alkaline sap obtained by mashing the pulpy flesh might conceivably save someone lost in the desert from dying of thirst. The pale yellow fruits are not spiney, and are eaten by birds, rodents, deer, and other desert animals.
There are a number of species of the low-growing, usually dome-shaped mammillarias, the solitary kinds often so small as to be overlooked except when blooming, in late spring or early summer. Some are known as “fishhook cactuses” because of their long, slender, hooked spines, others as “pin-cushion cactuses” because of the shape of the plants. The large, colorful blossoms which encircle the stems mature usually to red, in some species green, nipple-shaped fruits. Members of this genus are widespread in grasslands or rocky mesas and slopes throughout the Southwest.
Limited in its principal range to the Mojave-Colorado Desert, the beavertail is a low-growing species with flat joint-pads and bluish-green stems without spines. In their place are clusters of brownish spicules set in slight depressions in the wrinkled pads. The plants blossom in March and April, adding materially to the color of the spring flower display. The plants thrive in sandy desert soils, at elevations from 200 to 3,000 feet above sea level, and are found as far east in Arizona as Wickenburg. Cahuilla Indians cook the fruits with meat, and Panamint Indians dry the pads and boil them with salt.