The Sonoran Desert

An arid region covering approximately 120,000 square miles in southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, most of Baja California and the western half of the state of Sonora, Mexico. The Sonoran Desert includes the Colorado and Yuma deserts. Irrigation projects in the Sonoran Desert have helped create numerous very fertile agricultural areas, which include the Coachella and Imperial valleys of California. The relatively warm winters attract tourists to the many Sonora Desert resorts located in Palm Springs, California, and Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona.

The Sonoran Desert is the hottest of the North American deserts, but a unique pattern of rainfall produces a surprisingly broad and interesting biological diversity. The annual winter storms blowing in from the Pacific Ocean nourish many West Coast annual plants such as poppies and lupines, while healthy, reliable summer monsoons hydrate both annual and woody plants. Freezing temperatures and conditions can be anticipated on only a few nights during each winter.

The Seasons of The Sonoran Desert:
Spring: February to April
Foresummer (dry summer): May and June
Summer monsoon: July to mid-September
Fall: Mid-September to November
Winter: December and January

Removing Cactus Spines:

There are wild cacti in all the contiguous states except Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, so this is information useful to almost everyone – not just desert dwellers and visitors.

Large spines which have not been able to penetrate into the body very far can usually be pulled out with the fingers. More deeply embedded large spines may need to be extracted with tweezers, or even a pair of pliers. Be sure to sterilize the tool used.

The Jumping Cholla cactus, and its cousin, the Teddy Bear Cholla cactus, present a very special (painful) hazard. If you brush up against one of these two varieties of cactus, a whole stem segment (a joint) can detach itself from the plant and attach itself to you. This can be quite painful. Now, most importantly, resist that incredible urge to you’re the thing with your [bare] hand and remove it from your body. That's the very worst thing you can possibly do. Grit your teeth and try to improvise a pair of tongs from sticks or rocks you see lying around. If you happen to have a comb with you, gently, carefully stick it between your body part and the joint of the cactus and then flip the cactus part off of your body. Be careful that the piece of flying cactus does not even touch anyone else. Best to get people completely away from you when you do this. Transferring these attackers during the fliiping process is all-too-common. If the cactus part has firmly attached itself to your body, you may well need to cut the spines. This will need to be done with a sharp, strong scissors or good wire cutters. Also, you'll want a pair of pliers.

The Prickly Pear cactus has the more conventional spines, but it also brandishes clusters of tiny, fragile, hair-like, needles that are barbed. These special irritants are called glochids. Glochids are amazingly sharp, and have no difficulty in piercing skin and clothing. Glochids use numbers in their attack strategy. You'll likely never get just one or two of them on you – rather, dozens if you're lucky, hundreds of them if you're not. There are two problems to deal with when removing these spines: 1) they are very hard to see and 2) they are incredibly fragile, and will tend to break off at skin level from even the slightest provocation or pressure. Fingers make very awkward implements for attempting to remove these torturers. Ideally, you'll have a magnifying glass, a good light, and a pair of really good tweezers – and a VERY steady hand when you remove these. Some people have had success by dripping white glue on the affected area and then when the glue dries to a skin, it is slowly, gently peeled away. Others have reported success using very sticky tapes. The sticky side of the tape is very lightly touched to the affected area, and carefully removed. A piece of tape is only good for one use. If the spines break off at skin level, you can try carefully digging the spines out with a needle. Finding the broken ones can in itself be problematic. It is not uncommon for these spines not to be able to be removed. However, they will eventually dissolve or be expelled by the body.