Dulzura

Photographs

My own pictures of this plant, taken in the yard.

• Enlarge Shot from below with the sun behind it, a cut face lit through from the edges — six blunt points, a faint ring pressed into the pale flesh in the middle — and long amber spines flaring past the rim into the clouds.
• Enlarge A long Dulzura segment lying on the whitewashed board beside a tape measure, its narrow keeled ribs edged with long brown spines that fan out from every areole, and the word dulzura written low on one rib in black marker. — Named on the plant itself, in marker.

  Named on the plant itself, in marker.

• Enlarge The cut end held overhead against a blue sky with the crown of a leafy tree behind it, the face a six-pointed star of pale green flesh and orange spines bristling all around the rim.
• Enlarge Held up into a blue sky with scattered white clouds and shot from below, the cut face of a cactus fills the frame as a six-pointed star, pale green flesh with a faint ring in the middle inside a brighter green rim, straw-colored spines lit from behind at every point, and the…
• Enlarge A long cactus cutting lying on a pale weathered board beside a tape measure, the word "dulzura" written down one rib in black marker, its clean cut end at the bottom of the frame, and its spines dark brown at the areole fading to pale straw at the tips, throwing sharp shadows to… — The tape measure turns a corner, running down the left side of the frame and across the top.

  The tape measure turns a corner, running down the left side of the frame and across the top.

• Enlarge A slender cutting laid the length of the whitewashed board against the tape, straw spines standing off it the whole way and a word inked along one rib near the cut end; a wooden ruler lies out on the empty half of the board. — About sixteen inches from the cut end to the tip.

  About sixteen inches from the cut end to the tip.