Hidden Hedgehog Cactus

This is a hedgehog cactus clump located up near the north property line behind our house. This is the largest of several in that area and it is currently flowering as you can see from the image Damsel took a couple of days ago. Click on the image to enlarge.

This cactus and the others in the area are not visible from the lower level of the lot where the house is located and can only be seen after a moderately difficult climb. There are also lots of trees, cholla, creosote and other shrubs and cacti that make access difficult but not impossible.

We would like to move one or more of the hedgehogs to the lower lot, so we did some research on moving native cacti. Arizona law protects native cacti from randomly being removed and transplanted, but it allows us to remove or transplant on our own property without going through the process of getting permission to do so.

The cactus in the image will be too large for us to manage digging it up and moving it, but there is a smaller clump near the property line just behind the palo verde whose base can be seen in the upper center of the image. That cactus is similar in size to this hedgehog cactus which has been properly tagged per state permit process. We plan to move it sometime in June when conditions are said to be optimum for transplanting cacti in Arizona.