Button Cacti

Desert landscapes are subtle. If you look closely, there are colors and textures and surprises to be found and enjoyed. I spied these three little button cacti nestled in a protected niche. They are really very green but their spiny overcoats tone down the green to a sedate shade of celadon. Those spines form such remarkably precise patterns---probably another example of a fibonacci series. Who was the woman who first decided that these particular cacti would be known as button cactus? You know it had to have been a woman. She looked at them and thought of sewing on buttons with mismatched thread. Could there be a better name for these hardy little survivors?