This is an Echinocereus coccineus Engelm. var. coccineus or scarlet hedgehog cactus. The flowers are like beacons in the desert. You can read about all of the plants in North America on United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service's Plants Database. Here is the classification for the scarlet hedgehog cactus from the USDA:
The USDA National Plant Data Center, for example, has a site for identifying the grasses of Arizona. The site uses a list of 268 distinguishing features to identify all of the species of grasses growing in the state.
I image the world would be a drab and lonely place without knowing the scientific name of all of the plants, or at least, the common name, but most people couldn't tell a saguaro from Bermuda Grass. Even if you don't know all the names, you should at least know that everything has a name and you could look it up if you wanted to do so.
You can also impress your friends and acquaintances by throwing words like "andropogon glomeratus" or "arrhenatherum elatius" into your daily speech. But, I suspect that if you do, you will shortly have no friends or acquaintances to impress.
The picture above was taken on a memorable day at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona. One of the most spectacular places to visit in Phoenix, not that there is that much else to see anyway.
| Kingdom | Plantae – Plants |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta – Vascular plants |
| Superdivision | Spermatophyta – Seed plants |
| Division | Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants |
| Class | Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
| Subclass | Caryophyllidae |
| Order | Caryophyllales |
| Family | Cactaceae – Cactus family |
| Genus | Echinocereus Engelm. – hedgehog cactus |
| Species | Echinocereus coccineus Engelm. – scarlet hedgehog cactus |
| Variety | Echinocereus coccineus Engelm. var. coccineus – scarlet hedgehog cactus |
The USDA National Plant Data Center, for example, has a site for identifying the grasses of Arizona. The site uses a list of 268 distinguishing features to identify all of the species of grasses growing in the state.
I image the world would be a drab and lonely place without knowing the scientific name of all of the plants, or at least, the common name, but most people couldn't tell a saguaro from Bermuda Grass. Even if you don't know all the names, you should at least know that everything has a name and you could look it up if you wanted to do so.
You can also impress your friends and acquaintances by throwing words like "andropogon glomeratus" or "arrhenatherum elatius" into your daily speech. But, I suspect that if you do, you will shortly have no friends or acquaintances to impress.
The picture above was taken on a memorable day at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona. One of the most spectacular places to visit in Phoenix, not that there is that much else to see anyway.
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