PAINTED CANVAS OF THE DESERT 115 



How to grow 



Plants may be grown in zero temperatures without injury, 

 and thrive outdoors or indoors. They grow easily from 

 mature cuttings set out at almost any time, but preferably 

 early in spring; the cut should be allowed to callus over be- 

 fore planting. They should be watered once a month or 

 so during the growing season to keep the soil slightly moist. 

 Gravelly clay soils are preferred, though the plants grow 

 well in sandy clay or loam. 



Beaver Tail (Opuntia basilaris) 



How to identify and how it grows 



The Beaver Tail, or Opuntia basilaris, gets both Its com- 

 mon and its specific name from the appearance of the joints 

 growing from the base, which are covered with spicules and 

 resemble a beaver's tail. This plant is usually about a foot 

 tall and two or three feet across the spread of the rosettelike 

 growth, with the fanlike or beaver-tail joints coming from the 

 bases. These joints are about six by nine inches and of a 

 blue-green suffused with purple and covered with fine white 

 hairs. The older joints become crosswise wrinkled. The 

 red-brown spicules are very abundant, short and easily dis- 

 lodged. There are no spines on the plant. The purple 

 flowers are very numerous, about three inches in width and 

 length. They appear in April and May, and the fruit, which 

 is covered with many fine hairs, comes in July. 



How to grow 



Plants are uninjured by temperatures twenty-five degrees 

 below freezing. Transplant at any season; mature cuttings 

 planted early in spring will blossom the same season. Plants 

 may be set in gravelly or sandy soils with good drainage and 

 watered lightly once a month during the growing season or 

 droughty spells. 



