Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Monster cacti

Remember that island I told you about? The one with the two iguanas? I mentioned at the time it had 10 species of endemic cacti. Well this is one of them. I have no idea what the specific name of this is. It looks like an Opuntia sp. but its a, erm, huge tree.


cactus2

A tree with big spikes all over its trunk.

cactustrunk

I can't confirm it but these spikes are probably a defence against iguanas. The 2 cyclura here aren't as arboreal as normal green iguanas but they do climb (we saw one way up in the flooded trees) and they do eat cacti fruits. I can't help but think this species may have a future in the landscaping industry - I mean its just awesome!

4 comments:

Lucy Corrander said...

That trunk looks like a Yeti's leg.

Lucy Corrander
PICTURES JUST PICTURES

Hugh Griffith said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hugh Griffith said...

(My deleted comment had silly typo.)

Anyway:

I agree. It looks like a Yeti's leg. And I can't recall hearing of iguanas climbing yetis either.

tai haku said...

I think he'd be an overheated sunburnt yeti if he hung out in DR too long!