Not quite a succulent-related post but this is the forum in which I participate the most so I hope you all enjoy these photos of a superbloom in SoCal. The relentless rainstorms caused a lot of problems but they've also given us millions of California poppies and other native wildflowers:



















And this one keeps this post on topic - the only cactus I found in the two-hour hike. 😳Could you please let me know what kind of cactus it is?



The superblooms in the desert are even more striking but also farther away.

Guys, is the cactus in the last photo a cholla?

Beautiful photos!! Yes a cholla.

Those photos are amazing, Bleu! I would love to hike through all those blooms.

Those pictures are amazing. We are experiencing a bit of a bloom here, though it's more of the yellow flowers (pics 5&6) and less of the poppies and lupines, so not quite as eye-catchingly lovely. There's a lot of Mediterranean grass plants competing here where people have converted habitat to pasture at some point.

The weird thing is our rainfall this season has been about average, maybe a little more, certainly nothing spectacular. But all of the atmospheric river type (from the west) and none of the raging Alaskan storms coming down from the north. I think what has made the bloom so powerful the year is that the rain has come a little at a time, fairly regularly, which is great for baby seedlings to reach their full potential. I have watered my patio succulents (including a pot full of baby seedling Dudleyas in full sun) 3 or 4 times total this winter, when it would be weekly otherwise, if it didn't rain so regularly.

@DaisyI, I learned yesterday that the cultivar is 'Teddy Bear' (those spines are sharp!).

@Frenchy21, come visit and I'll take you there!

The cholla that I know of as the "teddy bear" is C. bigelovii, which looks different from the plant in your photo. It has distinctive spines. Yours has narrower stems and less dense spines.



As for what the plant in your picture may be, I'm afraid I can't be of any help.

@_Bleu_, That doesn't look like a Teddy Bear Cholla. They look fat and fuzzy, like teddy bears, and whitish or yellowish. Your's looks more like a regular skinny cholla like the one's in my yard.

You are so close to SoCal yet didn't get that much rain, @Baja. Hopefully, you didn't get the chilly temps, either.

The last time I had to use my hose was mid-January. Do you remember my post about those ice plant cuttings I got from the beach to plant on a slope just outside my fence? Well, that was last December just before the weekly rainstorms started and now, after all that water, those cuttings are thriving! I guess it's a good thing that they got started in these conditions and, hopefully, their roots will be well developed come summer because I am not planning on watering that area very often.

Daisyl and Baja, I think I have a better photo. I'll share it when I find it. One of the cacti "experts" at the nursery ID'ed it, he also showed me little ones, similar to those in the photo Baja shared. I kept wondering why they'd change so much as they grow older.

Found the other photo:



And teddy bears (from a google images search):



Gee, that guy must've been on shrooms! 😳Will show him this post when I go get my pots.

A Teddy Bear Cholla in Las Vegas:


And another in Red Rock Canyon:


And a regular cholla (on either side of the bunny):

The one in Red Rock Canyon looks different, less fuzzy and the spines look larger too. Maybe because of the weather conditions there?

Maybe. They didn't look very healthy or happy in Red Rock. The Joshua trees were amazing!

The cholla looks like what we call a "Walking Stick Cactus", either C.spinosior or imbricata. I'd need a close up to tell for sure.

Love those superblooms!

I love this article - those people in the picture are facing away from the mountain to get their selfies! I'm trying to visualize all those cars - I wish someone had gotten a selfie of that....
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/19...

Good article, Daisy. On Thursday, March the 10th, the LAT had an article with very detailed info on how to get there, where to park, etc. The article also said that the poppies would last another week or so and that Walker canyon had been getting about 1,000 visitors per day. It didn't sound like a lot of people so we drove there, on backroads, the next morning; route 74 was not busy at all but 😱we will never, ever, take that road again. Too long a trip on such treacherous road.

I cropped one of the panos I took, it shows Walker canyon road at around 9:30. We parked almost at the end of that road, which is just over a mile long. Behind that bend, they had placed a couple of porta-potties and two more near the trail, you'll be able to see them if you zoom in. That Friday morning, the highway was not congested at all. After the hike, we had lunch at a bbq place nearby; the waitress said business had picked up a lot in the past couple of days. That place must be crazy busy now.



We encountered several hundred people on the hills and only a few had brought their pets along. This cat is probably an Instagram celebrity by now:



I think that newspapers should be more responsible and coordinate with the local authorities *before* publishing such articles.

What amazes me is the need for a selfie. Maybe I'm in another world, but putting myself in the picture would never have occurred to me. And I would be taking pictures, for sure. I guess the difference is I would be an observer and not a participant. Eyes fully open, feet firmly planted.

We have some areas locally where people can walk along steep slopes and get up close to the action, but they are usually intelligent enough to stay on the path. There's a canyon near here with lots of Dudleyas and cacti growing on the rocks, and people do occasionally need rescuing there, but there's usually someone with rope and tools close by to make the magic happen.

I never want ANY people in my photos at all. I go to great lengths to leave them out. My husband, on the other hand feels the need to have someone in his photos. He hasn't gotten a selfie stick though. At least not yet.

That day, most people behaved responsibly but we did see a few who had walked off the trail and I kept thinking watch out for snakes! but they were too busy posing for their social media fans (and looking so very silly to the rest of us 😆). A couple of days ago, a dog got bit by a rattlesnake on those hills, it could've been its master...

Daisy, same here. Years ago, I used to be part of a photography circle; my photos showed Boston's neighborhoods and the emphasis was on the city's architecture. Most of the time I would have to wait a long time to get a shot completely clear of people. Guess what comment about my photos would drive me up the walls? Beautiful shot but where are the people???