The Cacti of Arizona

Cacti are inextricably linked to our vision of the desert. They are native to the Americas with many species found in Arizona, including the state flower, the Saguaro. This book is written by a Cactaceae (cactus family) botanical specialist, Lyman Benson, and illustrated by Lucretia Breazeale Hamilton, a botanical illustrator well known for her drawings of southwest plants. There are many line drawings with color photographs of cacti. This second edition has information on botanical names and taxonomical classification on the species found in Arizona. It is considered a semi-technical guide to identifying native cacti growing in Arizona. Dr. Benson went to write his opus maximus -- Cacti of the United States and Canada (1982), which was a culmination of nearly 50 years of research and a winner of the Henry A. Gleason Award from the Botanical Society of America in 1983.