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ABLAZE WITH COLOR THE DESERT IN SPRINGTIME

A PORTFOLIO My obsession began as I climbed a ladder to get a better view of the emerging buds crowded at the tip of a saguaro cactus arm. Having made the drive into Saguaro National Park in the predawn hours, I hoped to take the definitive photograph of a bouquet of white saguaro cactus flowers. but I was too early. Though there were buds everywhere, none had begun to flower. And so I returned to that same saguaro cactus for 10 days in May. Each day a new bud would burst into flower, and the prior day's flower would appear wilted and spent. First one flower would emerge, then three, then five, then the massive bouquet. Gradually the blooming would taper off until only one flower remained amid a mass of dried blossoms. Soon there would be saguaro fruit. I began paying greater attention to other cactuses. I saw my prickly pear cover itself with bright-yellow flowers one day, and shift those same flowers to orange as new yellow ones burst forth. I witnessed the hybrid crosses between the native chain and cane chollas and the resultant variances in colors. I took notice of barrel cactuses that were yellow, orange, or screaming scarlet. The purple-padded Santa Rita prickly pear with its contrasting golden flower became my favorite. In fact, I huddled over my prickly friends so often in the late spring and summer that my back ached, my skin burned... and my friends began to talk. My wife had patiently waited as I rushed home to grab my camera to record some cactus progeny on our way to a restaurant. Photography, after all, is nothing if not a waiting game. Here, then, are my flowering neighbors I waited for on the bajada of the Tucson Mountains.

ABLAZE WITH COLOR

Echinocereus fasciculatus GLOWING WITH AN ETHEREAL MAGENTA RADIANCE, THE HEDGEHOG CACTUS BLOSSOM EXERTS AN ALMOST HYPNOTIC ATTRACTION.

ABLAZE WITH COLOR

Opuntia violacea BRIGHT-YELLOW FLOWERS CROWN THE PURPLE PAD OF A SANTA RITA PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS.

ABLAZE WITH COLOR

Opuntia phazacantha THE MOST COMMON PRICKLY PEAR IN ARIZONA, THE ENGELMANN HAS FLOWERS THAT RANGE IN COLOR FROM A MUTED YELLOW TO RED. THIS ORANGE-COLORED SONORAN DESERT EXAMPLE WAS PHOTOGRAPHED NEAR TUCSON.

Opuntia fulgida THE DELICATE PINK BLOSSOM OF THE CHAIN FRUIT CHOLLA OFFERS A DRAMATIC CONTRAST TO THE THORNY ARMOR OF ITS PARENT PLANT.