
WHAT IS A CACTUS? 
This little book is intended to answer the above questions for those who do 
not know and for those who wish to learn more about these odd plants. For 
twenty years we have had this question asked almost daily by the many tourists 
who have passed by our gardens. 
Many other questions have been asked, some rather odd but none we thought 
foolish, as a cactus is an unique plant to many. Some of the questions would 
seem foolish to the initiated, however we are trying to answer a few of those 
most frequently asked. We shall be glad to answer any question one may care 
to ask but all inquiries must be accompanied by stamps. 
To be a cactus a plant must have five distinct characteristics. First, it must 
be a perennial; second, have two seed leaves (cotyledons) (47); third, have 
areoles or spine cushions; fourth, have a single celled seed-pod or berry; fifth, 
have ovary of the flower below the insertion of ‘the petals and sepals. If a 
plant has all these, it is a cactus, if it has not it is some other plant. 
The areoles are organs of great importance. One may almost call them the 
hearts of the cactus plant, for in addition to feeding the plant the spines grow 
out here, new branches start here, leaves come out here, flowers start here, 
and new roots in a cutting or partition center in the areoles. Sometimes ‘the 
roots come out just above or just below the areoles. If one cuts off all the 
areoles, the plant ceases to grow. The writer has a Cereus pruinosus that 
ordinarily will grow three feet in a year, which grew not at all, after having its 
areoles cut off nine years ago. If the spines are pulled from the plant and 
the areoles are undamaged, new spines will grow out again but this process 
sometimes takes a year or two. 
The cactus is a succulent and is only one of the twenty or more succulent 
families, which number among their members the Yucca (112), Stapelia, Agave 
(100) Aloe, Crassula, and Euphorbia. Many species of the latter so resemble 
cacti plants that the beginner will mistake them for cacti. 
HOW DID CACTI GET THEIR NAMES? 
Although cacti are indigenous to North and South America and the ad- 
jacent islands, they secured their name from a town of Greece named Kaktos, 
which means spiney plant. Kaktos was a small town which lay in the heart 
of the thistle belt; sailors from this town visiting the West Indies saw a plant 
covered with spines and perhaps they thought of their homeland fields of 
spiny thistles, and carried some back to show their friends. 
Anyway, the plants first made their appearance in Kaktos and were first 
called ‘‘The Plants from Kaktos,” This was shortened to ‘‘Kaktos Plants,” and 
in English became “Cactus Plants.” 
Opus, Greece, grew the Platyopuntia for its fruit so the “Prickly Pear’ (96) 
got is name from this town and today the Opuntia grows wild in several 
countries of Europe, mainly Switzerland and Northern Italy, and several species 
grow wild in the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. 
HOW DID CACTI ORIGINATE? 
At one time many thousands of years ago, all cacti were vines of bush-like 
trees similar to the lemon tree, and to this day many species retain their leaves. 
The plants can be traced through the ages from the Pereskia down to the 
Carnegia gigantea (102) which grows fifty feet tall and to the Peniocerus greggii 
(43) which grows 95% underground. Climatic changes caused the evolution of 
these plants and caused them to discard their leaves or to change them into 
pads, as the Platyopuntia. These climatic changes were due either to de- 
creased rainfall or the seeds being carried to a semi-arid or arid region by the 
elements or by birds and animals. 
The Pereskia was followed by the Pereskiopsis (Opuntia) with a more 
pronounced trunk and branches, the spine cushions were larger and thicker. 
A new growth of spines (Glochids) appeared and the leaves were larger and 
thicker. These thickened leaves and trunk show a more arid living condition. 
From there on the leaves play a very small part in the evolution of the cacti, 
and the leaves of the opuntia are only awl-shaped appendages. The Opuntia 
sublata under certain conditions will retain all its leaves. 

9 Ferocactus wislizeni 200 pounds. 12 Snow partly melted. 
10 Six inches of snow at Cactus Acres. 13 Cactus garden properly mounded. 
11 A desert garden of 200 kinds. 14 Barrel Cactus in snow. 

