Cactus Blog

Below is a tricky one to identify.

First we have what is unquestionably Parodia rutilans:

Here’s a picture of the cactus under that giant yellow flower:

Every source I have indicates that P. rutilans and all of its subspecies all have brown spines. Now they can have a more purplish flower too. But the edges are purple, while the center still remains at least yellowish.

Then there’s this plant:

The cactus is superficially similar to the one above. But this one has very clear black spines that fade to gray. You can really see that in the picture. Other aspects of the spination are also very clear and clearly not Parodia rutilans or related subspecies. And while P. rutilans can have a purplish flower, it still has a yellow throat while this one has a whitish throat (the photo shows some reflection of the yellow stamens on the petals).

Also, this flower has had a lot of trouble opening without heat. It’s a spring bloomer and we usually do not have enough heat this time of year for this flower to fully open. So I have lots of pictures from the last few years of this plant with buds, but this is my first one with a fully open flower. Previously, from the spination and the buds I thought this might be an Echinocereus, and with the heat issue that makes a lot of sense too. But now that this flower is finally open I can say very clearly that this is not an Echinocereus.

What is the one factor that makes me certain? The purple stigma.

So what is it?

I have a book that very clearly indicates that this is Notocactus roseiflorus. Case Closed? No! All Notocactuses have been moved into Parodia for a couple decades now, so then the question is what Parodia would this species name have been moved to. And unfortunately the answer is Parodia rutilans. Which clearly this is not. No way. Not even close. Not a subspecies. So I went back and did some more research on Parodia rutilans and the plant at the top and really, it’s quite certain. To quote my copy of Anderson, “Aureoles densely white wooly… Central spines light reddish brown, straight or pointed slightly downward…”

Now I had been using a made up name, Parodia rutilans ssp. roseiflorus to indicate the P. rutilans that had the purplish flowers as mentioned above, but that’s not a real name. I just made it up. So that’s gone by the wayside. So now I have to live with the fact that Parodia rutilans’ flowers can vary and rename all the ones with the brown spines to just simply Parodia rutilans.

And since I can’t come up with any other name ever attached to this black-spined purple-flowered cactus I will have to suffice with Notocactus roseiflorus for now. Unless someone can help me come up with another name that is current.

Science!

A redacted letter from a concerned citizen:

Cactus Jungle:

You have on your list Fouquieria xxxx from California, this incorrect (sic)….. Fouquieria splendens is the only one that grows in the United States, all the others grow in Mexico and Baja. Your Fouquieria xxxx looks more like Fouquieria xxxx from Baja….. Do you have any more information on your plant? I have grown all of the known Fouquieria’s (sic) and have been in Mexico many times studying and collecting them.

Mxxx

Mxxx,
Thank you for your concerns. The word “California” can refer to the current political boundaries of the state formerly governed by Arnold Schwartzenegger, or they can refer to the ecological and geological physical area (among other options). We prefer to include plants native to Baja California as part of the ecological area of California.

Thank you,
Peter

Editors Note: Science!

Aaron asks the classic cactus vs. succulent question, on the Instagrams.

Agave, euphorbia, Pachypodium, aloes and others alike are not cactus correct? They are succulents yes? To be a cactus it has to be under the family of cactaceae? Educate me my mentor! aweezy_27

Aaron,

Yes, you are right! Only cactaceae are “true” cacti. All other spiny plants that look like a cactus are not a cactus. The difference is in the “aureoles” – only cactus have aureoles. On the other side, there are succulents in many plant families, including cactus etc…

Succulent is a strategy, Cactus is a Family.

Science!

The Echinocereus grandifloras are in full bloom this weekend, so you know it’s spring out here at the Cactus Jungle.

We call this one “Amber Peach”

Rikki insists this one is “Tropical Pink”

I named this one “White Lightning”

In case you were wondering, these are all hybrids. They are intergenic hybrids between Echinopsis and Echinocereus. You may see these on various websites and at certain nurseries under various and sundry names. Some call them Trichocereus Hybrids or Lobivia Hybrids or Tricho-Lobivia Hybrids, however current taxonomy puts all Trichocereus and Lobivias into Echinopsis.

You may also see in certain quarters where they insist on particular cultivar names. However we have gotten our original parent plants for these hybrids from the original hybridizer and he does not name them himself. So we are free to call them by our own cultivar names. If you have better names for them than we’ve come up with, we’re happy to take suggestions!

Some people think that our cute little blooming Delospermas are Ice Plants, just like along the highways and coastlines of California.

But they’re not! I mean, sure, they’re related and all, and the leaves are similar enough and the fruits are also edible enough so that maybe you could call them Ice Plants if you really wanted to, but the biggest difference is that these are not invasive. So I choose not to call them Ice Plants.

Here are some in bloom right now at the nursery. Look at all the pretty flower colors!

Would you call that Magenta? I would. Maybe some would say it veers toward fuschia. I would not.

Yellow is easy to ID. Plus it is particularly popular with the native bees. They like yellow! There must be lots of native yellow flowers, like the Mimuluses. I would like to name this color, Rapeseed Yellow.

Pink is a varied color. Is there a shade of pink that would match this? It kind of matches MAC Eyeshadow’s “Swish” Swatch.

Red! Finally! Actually kind of a crimson red, so you know its good.

…and Orange.

By the way, the most popular Delosperma flower color on my Instagram feed is…

Wait for it…

Pink!

Science!

Ceropegia woodii variegata

That’s a bloom sticking straight out from the side of the plant into the black backdrop.

Why? What did you think it was?

Let’s talk Family Resemblance. These look like they should be related to the Stapeliads. Are they? Let’s check.

Well, they’re in  Apocynaceae which is, as we all know, is known as the…. Dogbane Family!

And what’s the Sub-Family? Asclepiadoideae! Hmmm. Didn’t that used to be it’s own family? Asclepiadaceae? The Asclepiads? Yes! Yes, it did. And what about the Stapeliads? Have we forgot the Stapeliads? Well now they’ve decided to give the Stapeliads their own Tribe in the Asclepiads Subfamily of the Dogbane Family. And that Tribe is called… Stapeliae. Huh. So they are related, but not quite the same tribe. Good to know.

(also, they’re related to the Hoyas, too.)

Science!

Urginea maritima in very full bloom. You can see there are lots and lots of reasons for the bees to get excited.

I wonder what the bulb below really looks like? It’s hard to get the bulb and the blooms in the same photo.

Bulb photo.

Gee, how tall is that bloom stalk?

Really tall. So tall that I have to stand pretty far back to get both the bulb and the blooms in the photo.

And if you were wondering what the Botanical Games are, join me after the break… (more…)

According to space.com,

Mars looks remarkably like the California desert in a new photo beamed home by NASA’s Curiosity rover, researchers said today (Aug. 8).

In the new black-and-white image, Curiosity’s Gale Crater landing site bears a striking resemblance to the desert landscape a hundred miles or so east of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where the rover was built, scientists said.

“To a certain extent, the first impression that you get is how Earthlike this seems, looking at that landscape,” Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena, told reporters.

Indeed. If you zoom in on the photo a little closer…

What is that? Is that a ….

It is! It is a….

Cactus on Mars!

Echinocereus purpureus, although the recently out-of-print The Cactus Family (Anderson) says its more recently changed to the corrected E. reichenbachii ssp. reichenbachii, but we also grow E. reichenbachii and then there’s E. baileyi which they say is more properly known as E. reichenbachii ssp. baileyi and E. armatus which Anderson insists is really E. reichenbachii ssp. armatus, so that’s all just too confusing and I prefer to go with the E. purpureus for this one.

Now that’s what Botany and Botanical Latin and the whole Horticulture trade is all about – getting the proper names right.

Science!

(The Merry Widow Cactus common name above is real, although Anderson also has listed the less distinctive Purple Candle Cactus.)

Mr. Subjunctive from Plants are the Strangest People sends along a funny.

From Iowa.

This is growing on E Washington St. in Washington, IA; the photo was taken 26 March 2012. I’ve seen it on previous trips as well, and thought of y’all, but things hadn’t worked out to take a picture of it, and we don’t actually go to Washington that often.

I think the bloom is new since the last time I saw it. Both the color (black?!) and form (more like an aroid flower than a cactus flower, really) are noteworthy. I presume, based on the bloom, that this is a Discocactus of some sort? It’s a slow grower, but I suppose that’s to be expected for any Iowa cacti.

-Mr. Subjunctive

First you need to click the picture above to get a closer look at the details. And then, here’s a Discocactus in bloom, so we can judge the similarities and determine the species.

From the Catalog of Botanical Illustrations, Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution

Plate Number: 1806
Publication: The Cactaceae Vol. 3 Pl 24, Fig 4
Client: Britton, N.L. and Rose, J.N. – Size: 11×14

Discocactus bahiensis (Cactaceae) – Type; Collection: Rose, J.N. 19783, Brazil, Bahia; flowering plant.
Artist: Eaton, Mary Emily – Date unknown – watercolor

No, definitely not a Discocactus.

Science!

Oh No! Next come the Dinosaurs! We’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years.

A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.

Pretty.

(ht Rikki)

From Biologist and Photographer of biologically active subjects, Alex Wild, comes a picture of a beetle. A longhorn beetle on a cactus. An Opuntia.

You’ll have to click through to see what I’m talking about. Click away!

Beautiful!

From the Catalog of Botanical Illustrations

Plate Number: 253
Vriesea erythrodactylon
Publication: The Bromeliads, 1969.

Remarks: The painting was displayed in the traveling exhibit: “Margaret Mee: Return to the Amazon” (1/16/96 – 8/20/99). The painting is matted in 30″ x 39″ matt and is on loan to Eva Pell, Under Secretary for Science, Smithsonian Institution and is in Room 325, Smithsonian Castle. Loan is through Richard Stamm, Curator, SI Castle Collections (11/19/10).

(Bromeliaceae) Collection: , Brazil, Caraguataluba; flowering plant.
Artist: Mee, Margaret – Date unknown – gouache

© Smithsonian Institution, Department of Botany

From The Cactaceae Vol. 2 by Britton and Rose by way of  the Catalog of Botanical Illustrations, Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution

Plate Number: 1767

Cephalocereus barbadensis (Cactaceae) – Type; Collection: , U.S.A., New York Botanical Garden; flowering branch.
Artist: Eaton, Mary Emily – Date unknown – watercolor
Copyright © Smithsonian Institution

Dinosaur feathers found in Canada, from Scientific American.

A partial view of 16 feather barbs trapped within a single piece of Canadian amber. These specimens provide few clues about their potential bearer, but provide another tantalizing view of well-preserved pigments within the deposit. The overall colour of these specimens would likely have been medium or dark-brown. Photo: Ryan McKellar

Wired Magazine is fascinated by the idea that seed pods can open up after they’ve been detached from the plant, i.e. after the tissue is “dead.” It seems to me that lots of seed pods that open do so after they’re “dead” but what do I know, I’m neither a botanist nor a reporter for Wired.

The article uses a Delosperma seed pod as an example of the “rare” phenomenon of dead plant “origami.” Since succulents’ cell structures can store lots of water, this example’s seed pod can unfurl, i.e. open, when the rains come.

Seed capsule from the ice plant Delosperma nakurense in the hydrated, unfolded state. (M. J. Harrington).

Now, what about the fact that these unopened seed pods, or “fruit”, are edible and often eaten by the birds?

link via PATSP.

Rathbunia alamosensis (Cactaceae) Collection: , U.S.A., New York Botanical Garden; flowering branch.
Artist: Eaton, Mary Emily – Date unknown – watercolor

Plate Number: 243
Publication: The Cactaceae Vol. 2 Pl 25, Fig 1
Client: Britton, N.L. and Rose, J.N. – Size: 11×14

From the Smithsonian Catalog of Botanical Illustrations

Currently known as Stenocereus alamosensis. The Rathbunia genus name is long gone, originally used in 1909, but superceded in 1979 by Stenocereus. The “Octopus Cactus” common name is shared with a few other plants that share it’s sprawly characteristics.

Shrubby, columnar plants, they spread outwards somewhat sinuously. The flowers are tubular red, as you can see. They will form 2″ red fruit, probably edible, probably called pitaya like the fruit from other Stenocereuses. Mexican, although the sample illustrated above was not geo-located.

Brown University biologists and colleagues have discovered that the rapid speciation of cacti occurred between 5 and 10 million years ago (the late Miocene) and coincided with species explosions by other succulent plant groups around the world.

I haven’t had time to read this through yet, so I’m leaving this here as a marker to get back to later. Here’s another quote in the meantime.

Cactaceae first diverged from its angiosperm relatives roughly 35 million years ago but didn’t engage in rapid speciation for at least another 25 million years.

Science!

How odd! I thought this was a cactus blog, with succulents and california natives and other assorted drought tolerant plants thrown in for good measure.

The Tampa Tribune publishes weird larva pictures.

The cactus moth larva often burrows into the cactus pad to feed on the flesh. Dripping ooze on the pad’s surface indicates a hungry caterpillar inside.

This came up in the course of a question from a reader:

Q: I found caterpillars in prickly pear in the cactus garden in the back yard. I looked them up and found pictures — they are definitely the larva of these cactus moths, Cactoblastis cactorum. What should I do to control them? Can I control them? What else will they destroy?

A:Unfortunately, this invasive insect is fairly common along Florida’s coasts. My advice to homeowners with only a limited number of cactuses under attack is to control the pest by removing the eggsticks by hand….

Click through for the rest of the answer, and a picture of the cactus moth’s eggstick.

Is this not the most exciting post of the day? No? Then you have no sense of the drama of the cactus moth’s mysterious eggstick.

Entomologists could wax lyrical for hours on the fascinating development of the Cactus Moth’s eggstick. Here, in fact, give a listen to an entomologist. Alright, so that wasn’t an actual recording of an entomologist at work, but rather the USDA’s scientific study of the Cactus Moth’s eggsticks.

Science!