Botanist Pablo Guerrero has been visiting Atacama cacti all his life. They’re not adapting well to a drier climate, booming mining and plant collection.

Christmas cactus or Schlumbergera x buckley can be seen around the holidays adding a splash of color to any landscape or ...

Meanwhile, cacti flowers, fruits and water-filled tissues provide food and hydration to desert animals. Some woodpeckers drill nest holes into cacti stems, then return the next year to live in them.

But the only secluded shady spots in the desert are often right next to a cholla cactus, so contact is inevitable! But even worse was the array of dislodged pads on or in the ground already ...

Meanwhile, cacti flowers, fruits and water-filled tissues provide food and hydration to desert animals. Some woodpeckers drill nest holes into cacti stems, then return the next year to live in them.