I was on a shoot one December morning, photographing an abandoned farmhouse, in front of which grew this tree with a cactus growing out of the living tree in a symbiotic existence. It made a perfect photographic composition, in my estimation.
Here is where the tree grows near the abandoned old farmhouse.
Taken 23 December 2016, by, D. Denise Dianaty, near Kennebec, NC. with an E600 Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm F3.5-5.6, ISO 200
I found my way back to photograph the same scene in the Spring. However, someone seemed to have occupied the house so I was not able to roam freely taking photos.
That's an opuntia, which have fruit that birds enjoy eating, so your cactus seed travelled there via a bird's gut. It's common to see opuntia sprouting under trees although that's the first time I saw one in a tree
I'm sure you're correct about the type of cactus. But, I'm equally certain these were planted as cacti are not native to North Carolina – while there was a fad of planting them in yards in the late 1970 through the 90s. My Gran had a patch in her yard from the same fad. It's also likely that this one was a potted cactus left in the tree which then overgrew the pot. I've seen other plants sunned that way and forgotten until the overgrew so much they burst through the pot. Out of camera view there was actually profuse stand of cacti growing on the other side of that strip of new road you see in the photo of the house, with the detritus of terra-cotta potsherds scattered among the cactus fronds. I didn't photograph it because the owner of the house on that side of the street stepped out into the yard; he was highly suspicious of me and my then 12-year old son and did not want me to photograph his yard or house.
I think the tree cactus was likely from someone setting a potted cactus on that flat space where a branch had been sawed off, probably to encourage it to bloom in NC's August sun and heat. Then, it was abandoned there and burst its pot.
I also had never seen a cactus growing in a tree.
It's very likely that the pot was left in the tree. Yep, Opuntias aren't native to your part of the states, they originated further South in desert and semi-desert areas. They are extremely invasive and grow all over where I live, which is why I thought of a bird spreading it around
Maybe I am !DERANGED but I do give some away too...
Thank you, @pixelfan.
Always a pleasure 👍
View or trade
BEER.Hey @momzillanc, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @pixresteemer for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking.
You got voted by @curationkiwi thanks to MomzillaNC! This bot is managed by KiwiJuce3 and run by Rishi556, you can check both of them out there. To receive upvotes on your own posts, you need to join the Kiwi Co. Discord and go to the room named #CurationKiwi. Submit your post there using the command "!upvote (post link)" to receive upvotes on your post. CurationKiwi is currently supported by donations from users like you, so feel free to leave an upvote on our posts or comments to support us!
We have also recently added a new whitelist feature for those who would like to support CurationKiwi even more! If you would like to receive upvotes more than 2x greater than the normal upvote, all you need to do is delegate 50 SP to @CurationKiwi using this link.
You don't usually think of cacti living in your parts. Cool capture:)
Thanks, Pryde! There was a fad for cacti in the late 1970s through 90s. Seems like everyone had them in their yards. Most places have yanked them now. These are obviously remnants of that fad.
This post has received a 3.13 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @curationkiwi.