This was a patch of some member of the Aloe Family, in the Succulent House. Who knew they came in such nifty oranges?
Call me weird, but the neatest bits of the cactus were the parts that were decaying. Look at those colors! And that texture! I musta taken a dozen shots of this patch of partially dead cactus, and I wish I'd gotten twice as many...gotta paint these...
Ever wonder what the skin of a saguaro looks like? They aren't flat green by a long shot...
These are called "totem pole cactus" and they form these gigantic stands of vertical trunks. But they're insane! They're all knobby and weird. I bought a one about a foot tall in the gift shop--they assure me that, left in a container, it will not achieve such immensity. I also bough some strange succulent Eurphorbia thing with these weird knobbly leaves, sort've like a jade plant crossed with a lettuce.
The prickly pears, they are a-bloomin'...or fruiting, or whatever the heck those red things are...
Ack! Run, it's the killer land starfish! They'll eat your brain if you hold still for sixteen hours or more! Actually, these are flowers, of some weird African succulent (the rather unremarkable green bits on the right.) Trippy, huh?
Some kind of butterfly on a non-cactus. There were all these cheery little orange flowers though--some kinda creeper.
Those are just a smattering of the photos...I took 200 or so, so I kinda had to whittle it down...As usual, if you Gotta Have One, just drop a line, and I'll be happy to hook you up with the full size file.