One of my Gymnocalycium anisitsii's
flowering in March

Pictures and descriptions of my
Cacti and Succulent Collection

     Here I am documenting my Cacti and Succulent collection with words and pictures. This is not intended to be a dry scientific treatise on these plants. So I'm not listing families and subgenera and synonyms and things like that. There are plenty of other good sites out there where you can find this info. I would rather this site be a more personal and visual experience. This section will always be under revision.
      A word of caution for those of you who are still on dial up. I don't believe in compressing my images. It compromises the quality too much. Also the images are large, so they may take some time to download. But in most cases it will be worth the wait. I'm not a professional photographer of any sort but sometimes get it just right. I hope you enjoy.
     You'll notice that for many species there are no flower pictures. Quite frankly not every specimen I have has flowered for me. When and if they do, I'll add those pictures. If anyone would like to donate a flower pic (hint, hint) in the interim, please contact me here. I would be happy to display your picture and acknowledge your copyright and even link back to your website if you have one.
     I've gone with tradition here and separated the cacti from the other succulents. Some of the other succulents are often confused with cacti and that's understandable given the similarities in appearance and growth habit. As the saying goes, "All cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti." The succulent genera most often confused with cacti is Euphorbia and also some of the Stapeliads, as illustrated below. Euphorbias and Stapeliads are found mostly in Africa but Cacti are native only to the Americas. Also Cacti have a unique structure known as the areole. The areoles are the growth points from which spines, flowers (not always), and new branches form. True areoles are only found in the Cacti family.

Astrophytum myriostigma 'Onzuka' - Cacti	Euphorbia horrida "Snowflake" - Other
Disocactus flagelliformis - Cacti	Huernia schneiderana - Other