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Description
types of barrel cactus Coast Barrel CactusThe Coast Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus viridescens), also known as the San Diego Barrel Cactus, is a rare and striking native succulent that brings a unique, architectural flair to dry coastal landscapes. Native to a very restricted range in southern California and northern Baja, this adorable, globe shaped cactus is a resilient survivor designed for the arid beauty of a rock garden or coastal sage scrub setting. Its vibrant green flesh is protected by a
The Coast Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus viridescens), also known as the San Diego Barrel Cactus, is a rare and striking native succulent that brings a unique, architectural flair to dry coastal landscapes. Native to a very restricted range in southern California and northern Baja, this adorable, globe-shaped cactus is a resilient survivor designed for the arid beauty of a rock garden or coastal sage scrub setting. Its vibrant green flesh is protected by a dramatic array of spines that emerge a brilliant red before maturing to a sophisticated gray or tan.
Perfect for gardeners looking to support biodiversity in threatened habitats, this cactus offers year-round structural interest. Whether featured as a centerpiece in a container or nestled among stones in a drought-tolerant border, the Coast Barrel Cactus is a conversation piece that combines rugged endurance with delicate, greenish-yellow blooms.
Key Benefits:
- Pollinator Resource: Produces unique yellow-to-green flowers that provide vital nectar and pollen for native bees, beetles, and butterflies.
- Host to Specialized Wildlife: Supports the biodiversity of threatened coastal habitats, benefiting sensitive species like the coastal cactus wren.
- Unique Defense System: Features extrafloral nectaries that attract ants; these "bodyguards" help defend the plant against herbivores.
- Wildlife Food Source: Produces fleshy yellow or red berry-like fruits that provide nourishment for various desert-dwelling animals.
- Nurse Plant Role: Acts as a "nurse plant" in the wild, providing shade and improved soil conditions that help other seedlings establish in harsh, rocky environments.
- Pollinator-Safe: Grown non-GMO and free of harmful neonicotinoids, promoting a healthy ecosystem for pollinators and wildlife.
Notoriously slow-growers, these one-gallon plants are nearly two years old, ensuring you receive a robust, well-established plant that is ready for immediate planting.
Why Choose Coast Barrel Cactus?
Choosing the Coast Barrel Cactus means more than just adding a beautiful succulent to your collection—it is an act of conservation. Because much of its native habitat in San Diego County has been lost to development, growing this species helps maintain the ecological integrity of a rare California native. It is incredibly low-maintenance, drought-tolerant, and verticillium wilt resistant, making it a sustainable choice for water-wise gardening. Its compact, solitary form (growing up to 18 inches tall) makes it ideal for small spaces and rock gardens where it provides consistent, evergreen texture.
Planting Tips:
- Location: Thrives in full sun. It is ideally suited for dry coastal gardens but can be grown inland in areas that do not experience regular freezing. Requires gritty, rocky, and exceptionally well-drained soil to prevent root rot.
- Watering: Water regularly during the first growing season to establish the plant. Once established, it is highly drought-tolerant and requires very little supplemental water.
- Maintenance: Minimal care required. This slow-growing cactus maintains its shape naturally. Protect from extreme frost if grown outside its typical coastal range.
For more information on planting, view our How to Plant Your Native Plants guide and other planting tips in the Garden for Wildlife Learning Center.
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4.1 ★★★★★
Based on 13 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
A Feminist Divine Comedy?
Format: Paperback
Let me start with this: The Descent of Alette is difficult to read at first. Notley "puts quotation marks around" "groups of words" "in lines" "that can be off-putting." Note that I'm not quoting from the book there, just giving an example of what the book's text appears like. This forces us to read more slowly, taking in each line a few words at a time. What appears to be awkward is in fact a great solution to the speed-reading most of us do these days. That being said, it's troublesome for the first few poems, less so after that, virtually invisible by the end of the first section.
When talking about this book, I immediately compare it to Dante's Divine Comedy, and I commonly see others do the same (see an earlier review here on Amazon.com). Exchange Hell for a subway, and you've basically got it: an underground realm ruled over by a Tyrant, poor souls being tortured, though in this case there is no indication that they have done anything to deserve it. Notley's language might not be quite as beautiful/harsh as Dante's, but her images stand with anything he created. After introducing two characters on a subway, a woman and her baby, both on fire, Notley writes:
"another woman" "in uniform" "from above ground"
"entered" "the train" "She was fireproof" "she wore gloves, & she"
"took" "the baby" "took the baby" "away from the"
"mother" "Extracted" "the burning baby" "From the fire" "they
made together" "But the baby" "still burned"
("But not yours" "It didn't happen" "to you")
"We don't know yet" "if it will" "stop burning,"
"said the uniformed" "woman" "The burning woman" "was crying"
"she made a form" "in her mind" "an imaginary" "form" "to
settle" "in her arms where" "the baby" "had been" "We saw
her fiery arms" "cradle the air" "She cradled air" ("They take your
children" "away" "if you"re on fire")
"In the air that" "she cradled" "it seemed to us there" "floated"
"a flower-like" "a red flower" "its petals" "curling flames"
"She cradled" "seemed to cradle" "the burning flower of" "herself gone"
"her life" ("She saw" "whatever she saw, but what we saw" "was that flower")
After surviving the horrors of the subway, Alette goes even deeper underground, passing through a series of psychological challenges that at times seem straight out of Freud, at times out of Classical mythology, at times out of collective dreams. Throughout it all, we learn more and more about Alette, who is not just a "hero" who goes through the motions necessary to the plot, but who considers and stumbles and is confused and learns.
The third section of the book is a rebirth, wherein Alette finds a source for a stronger power than the Tyrant's, and it is distinctly feminist in its nature. I need to note here for those who react to feminism in a knee-jerk way: Notley's feminism is not a militant feminism, though it requires brief "military" action on Alette's part. Men are helpful in the story, have purpose besides being the bad guy. If anything, what Notley attacks in the form of the Tyrant is the idea of a corrupt masculinity, a kind of Big Brother who would easily stand as an antagonist in any number of 20th/21st century literary works. Alette's feminism is the discovery of her place in the world, and that place is not slaving away mindlessly for the Tyrant, not acting as just a womb or pair of hands or pretty face. It's a nuanced message, despite the epic (and therefore presumably black-and-white) nature of the whole book.
The fourth section is the showdown with the Tyrant, a great deal of philosophizing, and an ending that I actually find more satisfying than that of Paradiso. I won't spoil it here, but it just works extremely well in conjunction with the themes of Descent as a whole.
If you want to be challenged, if you want to think deep thoughts, if you want surreality and magic, pick up The Descent of Alette. For even more interesting reading from the author and her partner, you could also turn to The Scarlet Cabinet, which contains but actually predates the on-its-own publication of Descent.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2010
★★★★★ 5
A Contemporary Epic
Format: Paperback
I have a complicated relationship with most of the books I've read by Alice Notley. I admire her facility with the lyric, her ability to get just beneath a concept or sentiment using a very talk-y style so that I always feel like I'm with whatever speaker she's using, inside that mind and her mind all at once. This is a good kind of complication. It's one I yearn for with poems.
The unpleasant complications are when I feel as though I'm just being subjected to her unedited notebook entries. Too much, too much, too much. It comes up especially with her book Mysteries of Small Houses.
I mention these difficulties only to sharpen the accomplishment of The Descent of Alette. Like other reviewers, I feel the tonal similarities to Dante's Inferno. Which becomes a subversive allusion considering Alette seeks after a male Tyrant in order to destroy him, while Dante sought after his Beatrice out of desire. But I read and reread Alette, because Notley continually subverts patriarchal conventions in the book.
I actually find I crave the speaker's intellect, and the mythic logic that gives the book its arc. I want it more. Yes, there are quotations around each fragment in the poems. I actually appreciate them for slowing my reading down, and for sharpening my focus on the use of Notley's language. And it's not just a stylistic tic, or something to be endured. It could actually be described as further subversion of The Tyrant Alette pursues.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2011
★★★★★ 2
Imagery and diction
Format: Paperback
This book was very challenging to read because everything was written in quotations however, it was intriguing as a different way of writing poetry.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020
★★★★★ 5
I tend to leave most books in this genre disappointed. I miss the classics
Format: Hardcover
I bought this book after hearing Stacey Lee speak about narrative tension at a lecture for YA writers - the talk was specifically entitled, "How to keep them up all night." The lecture (alongside Anna Shinoda) bit off a rather large amount of material. Neither woman mentioned vampires. The methods they discussed were smart, creative, and delivered with just enough humor to leave me wondering whether I'd be able to put their debut novels down.
I devoured GONE WITH THE WIND at least six times cover to cover between my sophomore and senior year. While I am more susceptible to the Historical Fiction page turner than the average girl, I tend to leave most books in this genre disappointed. I miss the classics. I opened this book determined to not judge it by its gorgeous pastel cover. I started slowly. I enjoyed the first four or five chapters - leaving each fully appreciative of Lee's craft. I particularly enjoyed her ability to pepper humor though tragedy. I often complain about writers who miss the mark here. Stacey Lee nailed that important believable balance for me. I liked her characters quickly. I left each chapter satisfied, but thoroughly able to get up and go on with my life. Like a jaded Thumper in Walt Disney's BAMBI, this book was more than nice, but I wasn't susceptible to any kind of teen-aged Twitterpation over it. After the sixth or seventh chapter - four or five days after I first picked it up, I quietly closed my copy, placed it on my nightstand, switched off my lamp, fluffed my pillow and turned over. I turned over again. I flipped on the light - OK, just one more chapter... I zombie sleepwalked to work the next day. That night I retired early, making some completely convincing excuse about being exhausted. I was certainly too tired to read. Flash forward to 6AM when I woke up with this novel on my face. I turned it's last page this afternoon, fully satisfied. I am truly sad it's over. This book transported me. It's one I'll want to have in my collection forever, alongside the beautiful books that mattered to me as a teen; JANE EYRE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, UNDER A PAINTED SKY. Classic in feel, subject matter, and voice - but modern in approach, I'd be as comfortable recommending it to my book club as I would handing it to any teen. Readers of all ages and walks of life will surely find something that resonates with their own stories too. As for me, I am sure I'll be back on the trail with these girls-- I mean boys, before long.
Now I'm off to try my hand at Anna Shinoda's LEARNING NOT TO DROWN. Well, maybe tomorrow. I need a good night's sleep and it's clear these authors know how to keep those pages turning.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2015
★★★★★ 4
Good, Fun, Important Topics
Format: Paperback
Good, solid, read for ages 12+. Somewhat unrealistic and yet believable story of two strong young female characters traveling west disguised as boys. Couldn't stop reading it until I was finished with the book, and now my granddaughter is doing the same. This book has many relevant themes about race, gender, class, religion, and other stereotypes and is an excellent choice for a classroom or family read aloud. Get it.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2017