Eileen

Photographs

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

• Enlarge Shot from below with the sun flaring just past it — the cut end of a column held overhead, a pale ring at the center of the face and orange spines standing off the rim. — Six points on the cut face.

  Six points on the cut face.

• Enlarge A single narrow green column standing in dry, straw-colored lawn in front of a pitted gray boulder, three ribs turned to the camera, tan spines mostly down its right side, and its own shadow thrown across the rock behind it. — The tip is a paler, yellower green than the rest of the column.

  The tip is a paler, yellower green than the rest of the column.

• Enlarge An Eileen column close up against a porous gray lava boulder in hard sun, filling the frame top to bottom; three straight ribs face the camera and long straw-colored spines fan out from small white areoles, their shadows falling across the rock.
• Enlarge A cactus cutting held up into a deep blue sky and shot from below, the flat cut end pointed at the camera as a six-pointed star of dark green rind around pale flesh, a broken ring of tan flecks around the middle, and long spines at every point, lit straw-gold where the sun burns…
• Enlarge A slim cactus column rising out of patchy dry grass in front of a big gray boulder pocked with holes, bright yellow-green at its rounded tip and blue-gray green lower down, with long straw-colored spines and its own hard shadow thrown across the rock behind it. — The areoles at the very tip carry only small nubs; the long spines start lower down.

  The areoles at the very tip carry only small nubs; the long spines start lower down.

• Enlarge A cutting held upright over a terracotta pot planted with artificial sunflowers, a cut-metal crescent moon standing behind it and a low green shrub off to the left.
• Enlarge A long Eileen cutting laid out full length on flattened cardboard with a ruler beside it, the name written on the skin near the top end in marker. — A full-length cutting, named on the stem and measured. · August 2026

  A full-length cutting, named on the stem and measured. · August 2026