Cacti of the Galapagos

 Both Geordie and I find cactuses pretty neat. The Galapagos Islands had several species. I really liked the Lava cactus below. They are one of the first things to colonize lava fields hence their name. They grew in clusters and were short. None even came close to knee high. These stubby cactuses were on Santiago Island on a 300 or so year old lava flow.

 Giant prickly pear were flowering while we were there. You can see yellow dots on the specimen below which are the flowers. Mockingbirds and Cactus Finches liked to eat the flowers and fruit. We saw Cactus Finches nesting right in the trunk of the cactus. This type of cactus is kind of strange. When it is young like the one below it looks like that. As it ages (it will more than 100 years old when this happens) it looks more tree like with a bare trunk and all the cactus leaves at the very top. Kind of like palm tree but full of spikes.

 Candelabra cactus are most like the ones you see in the American Southwest. They are named for their branching shape. These also attracted various birds to nest in them. They were common on many islands. This one is on Santa Fe.