Echinocereus triglochidiatus (claret-cup cactus) 2 (23781094070)

Description:

Echinocereus triglochidiatus Engelmann in Wislizenus, 1848 - claret-cup cactus in Colorado, USA. Plants are multicellular, photosynthesizing eucaryotes. Most species occupy terrestrial environments, but they also occur in freshwater and saltwater aquatic environments. The oldest known land plants in the fossil record are Ordovician to Silurian. Land plant body fossils are known in Silurian sedimentary rocks - they are small and simple plants (e.g., Cooksonia). Fossil root traces in paleosol horizons are known in the Ordovician. During the Devonian, the first trees and forests appeared. Earth's initial forestation event occurred during the Middle to Late Paleozoic. Earth's continents have been partly to mostly covered with forests ever since the Late Devonian. Occasional mass extinction events temporarily removed much of Earth's plant ecosystems - this occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary (251 million years ago) and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (65 million years ago). The most conspicuous group of living plants is the angiosperms, the flowering plants. They first unambiguously appeared in the fossil record during the Cretaceous. They quickly dominated Earth's terrestrial ecosystems, and have dominated ever since. This domination was due to the evolutionary success of flowers, which are structures that greatly aid angiosperm reproduction. The claret-cup cactus occurs in hot, rocky, desert settings of southwestern America & northern Mexico. When in bloom, the flowers are intensely scarlet, sitting atop stumpy, cylindrical, highly spinose stems. Like other cactuses, this plant lives in arid environments and has features that conserve water. The spiny, green, stumpy stems of cactuses are photosynthesizing. The leaves of cactus ancestors have been modified by evolution into spines. Info. provided by Colorado National Monument: "The claret cup's cylindrical stems are usually clustered together and often appear in a mound. Scarlet flowers can be seen blooming on this cactus in April and May. Unlike most cacti that are pollinated by bees and flies, claret cups are pollinated by hummingbirds." Classification: Plantae, Angiospermophyta, Caryophyllales, Cactaceae Locality: outdoor desert plant display at Colorado National Monument's visitor center, southwest of the town of Grand Junction, west-central Mesa County, far-western Colorado, USA More info. at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinocereus_triglochidiatus