Scaled image 4.webp

The left fuzzy seedlings are Echinocereus neocapillus (I refuse to call them Echinocereus russacanthus neocapillus. This logic leads to calling all cacti as Cactus cactus cactus. Utterly crazy, but a fair number of self-proclaimed cactus experts, even some who are paid to be cactus experts, think that Cactus cactus cactus is a reasonable description of the roughly 2,000 species of cacti I recognize.) The right fuzzies are Echinocereus canus (I refuse to even think, ever, of them as Echinocereus russanthis canus. Same insanity as previously asserted. NUTS!)

I'm sorry to drag you into my side of the cactus religious wars, but I do truly believe that the present lumpers of cactus taxonomy are crazy. None of them, as nearly as I can tell, have ever raised a single cactus from seed. Should they ever do so, they might reconsider their analyses and assignments based on partial records of alcohol-soaked dead specimens of tissue examined in English laboratories years after the sample was collected. David Hunt, the High Priest of this fraternity has demanded that any objection to his lumping not include any reference to modern genetics. He thinks that Carl von Linne, born and died hundreds of years ago, is the only authority of taxonomy. Genetics? Baloney! There was no genetics when Linnaeus was alive.
Well, yeah. That's my point.

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