Native Cacti and Succulents

Photographed in the botanic garden at the visitors' center in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Photographed in the botanic gardens at the visitors' center in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

This is a young stem of an Ocotillo plant. Ocotillo is common in parts of the desert southwest of the United States and Mexico. It is not a cactus though many identify it as such. This example was photographed along the Hellhole Canyon trail in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

I believe this is Gander's Cholla. It was photographed along the Hellhole Canyon trail in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Photographed in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park along the Hellhole Canyon trail, the cacti are Southwestern Barrel Cactus and the Ocotillo in front of them is a very young plant (they grow to be about fifteen feet tall). The smaller sunlit plant at the base of the cacti is a young Brittlebush.