Arizona Centennial Celebration V

The most famous thing about Arizona is cactus. One of the most wonderful things about it is that these scrappy plants, built to survive under the harshest heat conditions, defending themselves with painful swords all along their skins, also blossom at least once a year into a thing of ineffable beauty.

Prickly pear (nopal) with red bloom.

See this and many other wonders in the original post.