Product Description

The deserts of the American Southwest boast a remarkable diversity of drought-tolerant plant life, including many species found nowhere else on earth. And no group says "desert" quite like cacti. Their prickly nature notwithstanding, cacti and the desert habitats in which they reside are especially fragile. Indeed, Saguaro National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument were established primarily to protect the largest concentrations of these respective species. Others, such as the Pima pineapple cactus, are less conspicuous but also more rare and in need of special protection and conservation. In Cacti of the Desert Southwest, botanist Meg Quinn describes eighty-six of the most significant cacti found in the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Mojave deserts. For ease of identification, all are depicted in color photographs and those that bloom are shown in full flower. 86 color photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #455327 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

A decent field guide to southwestern cacti
While the style of this book is relatively light and informal, the book does a very good job of presenting all the species of cacti in the southwestern United States and the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of Mexico. The cacti are organized by scientific name, but common names are given as well. Identification information and short natural history information is presented for every cactus. The large, visually appealing color photos show enough of the plants to allow for easy identification. This book has only two major drawbacks. First, it only provides written descriptions of the cacti's ranges, whereas maps would have been more useful. Second, the regions covered by this book seem to be fairly nebulous; it is unclear as to exactly which parts of the United States and Mexico are fully represented. Nonetheless, this book serves as a very good field guide for anyone interested in cacti.