I visited the Anza-Borrego desert state Park in California today. One more desert, I know! The thing about Southern California is that most of it is a desert. Except the small 50 to 100-mile wide strip of land along the coast-line where people live and a few high-elevation mountains, socal is a desert!

Anza-Borrego is East of San Diego,t it is not the greatest desert I saw but I found the variety of cactus quite interesting there. So I took some pictures and made a little of homework. All the pictures below were taken there, click on the pictures to get a bigger version, click here to see all of them.

American aloe (Agave Americana) aka "century plant" (on the right).
This is actually not a cactus but is a weird plant you find a lot in the desert. I am sure you have probably heard about the "Aloe Vera" used in cosmetics, the American Aloe is another aloe which is not used to make cosmetics but to make Tequila! Much better:-)

The barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus), picture on the left, my favorite.
The pulp of barrel cactus has been widely used for making cactus candy. Native Americans also used the cactus as a cooking pot by cutting off the top, scooping out the pulp and inserting hot stones together with food. The spines were used as needles, awls and in tattooing.
I'd like to know what Cactus Candy is btw. Is that something you eat???

Beaver Tail cactus (Opuntia basilaris). Picture on the right. This one is a classic. Obviously named this way because it reminded people of a beaver tail.

Two chollas, the Buckhorn cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa) on the left, and the Teddy Bear cholla (Opuntia bigelovii) on the right. The guy who named it "Teddy Bear" probably had a difficult childhood...
Anyways "cholla" in Spanish means joints or jointed which makes as much sense to me as the teddy-bear thing.

The Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). This one looks like some kind of weird small tree or a big brush. The closer you get, the less friendly it becomes:

The Prickly pear cactus (Opuntia macrorhiza). It looks a little like the Beaver Tail. There is a medicinal interest for this cactus. Both its pulp and its flower have good medicinal properties. The Incas have been known to cultivate it about 5000 years ago and it is still grown in Mexico.

The hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii):

Finally, the soaptree yucca (yucca elata). This is not a cactus either.
The soapy material in its roots and trunks made this plant a popular substitute for soap. Native Americans used the coarse fiber of the leaves for weaving baskets.

Sources:

• http://www.cactaceae.net
• http://www.desertusa.com
• http://www.cactiguide.com