Saw a few different specimen of this cactus. I wanted to try some of the fruit, but read that it is inedible. The fruit has a beautiful deep purple color when you cut it open though, and the juice can be used as dye.
Had those little invasive bugs all over the flowers.
Got this info searching for the name of the bug online. The bug in my picture is identical to the one in the picture provided with this info. "The African Painted Bug, Bagrada hilaris, was first observed in Southern California in 2008." It is an invasive species that apparently poses a threat to plants in the cabbage family.
It was chilling some branches and i managed to get a shot of it before it hopped off. The tail is so long it literally looks like a snake, until you spot the little legs.
Saw a few of these sunbathing on the rocks on the big dry riverbed area. They were up to 7 or 8 inches long, and were brown with two darker, almost black stripes going down the edges of their back. I was able to get a relatively close picture of one of them as it tried to hide from me.
