Students make a prickly proposition that sticks: Designate an official Washington state cactus

A school class proposed a native cactus for the honor and they now have a sponsor in the Legislature.

State Senator Judy Warnick, who represents an arid district that straddles the mid-Columbia River, is leading the way to add the basalt cactus to the Evergreen State’s array of official state symbols. The Moses Lake Republican introduced legislation on Thursday to establish the state cactus.

“I don’t think it’s frivolous at all,” Warnick said pointedly. “It does give us a chance to do something a little more fun and work with the students to learn what civics is all about, how we pass bills, how they become law. So, it’s an educational experience.”

Second to fifth graders from Discovery Lab of Ellensburg, a small, private co-op type school, wrote letters to Warnick proposing the basalt cactus be Washington’s official state cactus. The plant, pediocactus nigrispinus, is also known as the Columbia Plateau cactus, hedgehog cactus or snowball cactus. It grows in scattered dry locations in central Washington, eastern Oregon and north central Idaho.