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.

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.

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

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 ...