Contest 62 : Discussion and related Pictures

[Jens]

@Ian :So maybe more like 35-40?
@Arjen :That´s one great specimen, how did you get to know the age of it?

[Arjen]

I've bought it from an old lady, very well known in the dutch cactus community, it was a young habitat plant when she got it which didn't matter much to me at the time. I wouldn't buy it now...

[Jens]

it was a young habitat plant when she got it which didn't matter much to me at the time. I wouldn't buy it now...

Hello Arjen,
Maybe it was a cutting from a habitat plant? I wouldn´t worry about conservation issues in that case (the mother plant being still in habitat).
This is only my personal opinion...

[CactusJordi]

Some more oldies of one of the oldest in this forum.
All self grown from seed 20-30 years ago, apart from the Lophophora which had been field collected in Texas in the seventies.
Jordi

[Jens]

Nice guys from Hamburg
These are all awesome Jordi!

[Tony]

WOW! Those are awesome!

[SkyClan Cat]

My fairy castle is the one I've had the longest (a little over a year), but I'm curious as to whether or not an age can be approximated for my S. truncata that I got last summer, based on the corkiness of the base.

[Arjen]

Maybe it was a cutting from a habitat plant

I hope it is, and that is very likely

[daiv]

All self grown from seed 20-30 years ago

That makes them twice as impressive!

[Jens]

@ata1515: The mammmillaria you´re showing should be at least 3-4 years

@skyclan cat: Schlumbergera are often propagated by taking cuttings of the same clone. If you inquire when that special seedling of the plant came to live you will know the actual age of your plant (Which will probably be much older than the cork on the stem )

edit : I don´t have any schlumvbergera specimen in my collection so it´s hard to say for me at which point of their life they get to be corky at the basal segments.

[ata1515]

Thanks Jens, I wouldn't have though it was that old from what I paid to get it!

[Jens]

@ata1515

I had a look around for the one with the longest beard in my place.
It probably is this one which I had for a year now
Copiapoa montana, Aussaat Haage 1965 (from Haage seed 1965)



This looks pretty senile too - but it has no date of birth with it

Tephrocactus oligacanthus HPT114

[Jens]

@SkyClan Cat
Schlumbergera can get quite big/old.
As I can tell with my rudimentary french it doesn´t say how old the cactus is?
But its fun to look at the rescue photo story anyway
http://cactusepiphytes.pagesperso-orang ... era_01.htm

[cactihunter]

Jens that is a great rescue story and doesn't the plant look wonderful following its recovery.

Those without rudimentary french...google translate is a major bonus

[Jens]

Thanks cactihunter
Having used the automatic translation it says beneath the second picture that he estimates the plant to be about a century old...quite an age for a leafy thing like that