King of the Dogs and Queen of the Night

When I initially wrote this story I was using Lyman Benson’s The Cactus of Arizona as my reference and the queen of the night cactus was Cereus greggii. A friend gently reminded me that the genus had long been changed to Peniocereus. Okay. So I rerecorded the show with the correct name. That was well over twenty years ago and now the proper name for the night blooming species that we found around our home back then is Peniocereus greggii var. transmontanus. The variety P. greggii var. greggii is found out where we now live in Cochise County and if you wander into western Arizona borderland desert you may come across Peniocereus striatus. For photos of all of the above go to:  http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php and type the name into Search Taxon. Also, if you can find a copy of Lyman Benson’s book, you should nab it. It’s still an incredible resource. And finally, in the book department; anything by Byrd Baylor. Byrd should be required reading for all children and adults that live in the southwest.She is a treasure. Here are a couple of my favorites: I’m in Charge of Celebrations and Yes Is Better Than No. Hmm, how about one more? The Table Where Rich People Sit.

Hoppy’s name is still the same after all these years and this is the story of a favorite dog that all three of our children were lucky enough to know and love. I suspect that Hoppy felt the same. Ms. Mesquitey found me the photos with two of our kids with Hoppy. That’s Sarah and Hoppy, Katy’s little legs with Hoppy and the framed picture; well, that sits on a shelf loaded with family photographs. It’s in the front.