Deserts of the American Southwest are home to an incredible diversity of drought-tolerant plants, including many found nowhere else on earth. And no other group says 'œdesert' quite like cacti. Their prickly nature notwithstanding, cacti are very fragile, as are the arid deserts they inhabit. In Cacti of the Desert Southwest , botanist and educator Meg Quinn describes eighty significant cacti of the Sonoran, Mojave, and Chihuahuan deserts, including several which are listed as threatened or endangered. Most are shown in full flower.