A pictorial account of some fieldwork conducted in 2007.

Peyote is a cryptic species which can be hard to spot even when present in abundance.
   These Larrea shrubs are common nurse plants. Can you see peyote growing under them?
   Neither could we.
   This is Lophophora williamsii habitat in the Sierra de la Amargosa.

Click on the images to see a larger view.
Click on those larger images to return to here.

We expected to find L. williamsii here but instead found only holes precisely where the peyote plants would have been.
    Notice the shallow pits at the base of the badly trampled shrubbery where peyote plants should be growing? It appears that these peyotes were harvested along with their roots.

If any viewers have trouble imagining where the peyote plants would normally be in these photographs, take a look at some other peyote plants that are growing with similar nurse plants and then come back here to look for the shallow holes in similar spots in these images.

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