{"id":49472,"date":"2023-05-17T07:46:41","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=49472"},"modified":"2023-05-17T07:46:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:46:43","slug":"a-sucker-for-succulents-and-cacti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heuermontage.com\/?p=49472","title":{"rendered":"A Sucker for Succulents and Cacti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Any fan of succulents and cacti will have a field day when visiting Pasadena’s Huntington Gardens. Or they might just walk through the many neighborhoods of L.A., where landscaping with those plants, uniquely able to tolerate drought conditions, can be found anywhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are some distinctions (I learned this from the Planet Desert<\/a> website.) “Cacti are identified from their needle-like spines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They have fleshy stems that store water and are capable of performing photosynthesis. A succulent plant, on the other hand, holds water and nutrients in its fleshy leaves. Most cactus plants do not have leaves but some of them do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both succulents and cacti bloom. However, the flowers of cactus plants are brighter, larger in size, and have complex structures as compared to flowers of succulents. Although both succulents and cacti flower, only cactus plants can grow fruits. The most commonly known cactus fruits are dragon fruit and prickly pear fruit.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Green blossoms – find the bee!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mathematicians and physicists<\/a> have been fascinated by the plants. Authors Arthur Gibson and Park Nobel offered an excellent introduction to the geometry of the plants in a classic research summation, the Cactus Primer.<\/em> <\/a>The plants are masters of the helix (Fibonacci series) and other complicated mathematical sequences and equations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artists have long reveled in both the general appearance or the specific details of cacti. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditional landscape painters like Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Velasco preserved the beauty of cacti vistas already in 1877. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Detail of Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Velasco, The Valley of Mexico (Valle de M\u00e9xico)<\/em>, 1877, oil on canvas, 160.5 x 229.7 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA, Mexico City), photo: Steven Zucker<\/a>, CC: BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are classics, like Diego Riviera’s landscapes with cacti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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O’Keefe’s Yellow Cactus<\/em> from 1935:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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and Frida Kahlo in a more narrative painting from 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Or even earlier, from far away Germany, someone who could have been my Opa: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spitzweg, Carl (1808-1885) – 1856c. The Cactus Friend <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemporary giant of the hyperrealistic painting, Lee Kwan-ho, is dedicated to the plant as well. Check out that site – his work is amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hyperrealistic Cactus Paintings that Bristle with Detail by Lee Kwang-ho<\/a><\/blockquote>