Small "egg-shaped"cactus, 3 - 4 inches wide, with dark, fine, fishhook-like spines.
Common Fishhook Cactus (Mammillaria tetrancistra) Native Cactus. Only grows a few inches tall. Spine tips are dark and hooked, “fishhook-like.” Tepals are pale pink to rose purple with white margins. Peak bloom time: April-August.
Cacti, Agaves, and Yuccas of California and Nevada. Text and photos by Stephen Ingram. Cachuma Press, 2008. pp. 100-101.
Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers (and more) https://borregowildflowers.org/?type=search&searchtype=S&family=&name=Mammillaria%20tetrancistra
Jepson eFlora https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=32702
Baja California Plant Field Guide, Jon P. Rebman, Norman C. Roberts, 3rd. ed, 2012, pp. 195-196.
California Desert Wildflowers, Philip A. Munz, 1975, p. 20
Cacti of California, E. Yale Dawson, 1966, 3rd printing 1975, p. 57
Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants, Lowell John Bean and K. Saubel, Malki Museum Press, 1972
CalFlora's Southern California Plant Communities http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/plantcommunities.html
Plants of Southern California: Regional Floras http://tchester.org/plants/floras/#abdsp (a comprehensive website)
Native and Introduced Plants of Southern California by Tom Chester http://tchester.org/plants/index.html
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Coachella Valley Preserve: For thousands of years, particles of sand from the San Bernardino Mountains and Indio Hills washed into the Coachella Valley forming a system of sand dunes. Today, these dunes are part of the Coachella Valley Preserve System, a 20,000-acre sanctuary.
The Coachella Valley Preserve also contains several palm oases that sit on top of San Andreas Fault lines. Underground water rises to the surface through these cracks. California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera) grow along the cracks where the water seeps up creating a desert oases.
Coachella Valley sits at the convergence of four vast ecological systems - the Colorado (or Sonoran) Desert, the Mojave Desert, and the coastal and peninsular mountain ranges.
https://www.blm.gov/visit/coachella-valley-preserve
Valley of Fire
Probably been in bloom a week ago.