Senita Cactus

I had an exciting discovery yesterday. I was at Corn Springs in the Chuckwalla Mountains in southeastern California and came across a senita cactus. It was the first of any of the big three cacti (saguaro, organ pipe or senita) that I have ever seen in California. What's more, I understood that the only senita cacti in the U.S. were found in Organ Pipe Cactus NM in southern Arizona, just over the Mexico border, which I have seen. 

Looking east with the Chuckwalla Mountains in the background. 

 

I just signed up for inaturalist.org today and posted it and note that there are four other observations of senita cactus in southeastern California and note that there is one other observation in a different part of the Chuckwalla mountains, two in the desert north of the chuckwalla mountains and one just east of the Eagle Mountains east of Joshua Tree NP. I'm pretty excited to stumble across such a rare find. 

I'd followed a game trail from the wash northeast of the palm tree oasis, east, and it was just off the trail over a ridge. It was very early in the morning, about 5:30 a.m. and the sun was just coming up, so the light is a little bit of an issue on some of the photos.