Epithelantha micromeris -- in flower?

[Steve Johnson]

I just picked up on an interesting change I hadn't noticed earlier. Here's a before-and-after of the micromeris in mid-October and today:

Epithelantha_micromeris10142012-02272013.jpg (184.21 KiB) Viewed 1944 times

In October the top looked fairly flat, but today it's more dome-like. I know we've had just a couple of warm spells this month, but could the plant be growing again already? I don't want to get too excited about watering yet -- cold weather in March is still possible, and would certainly spell trouble. But if it stays consistently warm enough, the micromeris may be ready for its first watering toward the end of the month.

[rtb1980]

Hey guys,

I got this one in mid June on ebay. I never saw it flower but it has produced a lot of berries. There are also a lot of babies popping up around it from seeds that had fallen. I was confused at first as to why I was getting so many berries but never saw any flowers, now I realized it probably flowered well before I got it and the fruit is just now coming up. The attached picture was taken a couple day ago. Such a cool cacti.

Just wanted to share

[Steve Johnson]

Hey guys,

I got this one in mid June on ebay. I never saw it flower but it has produced a lot of berries. There are also a lot of babies popping up around it from seeds that had fallen. I was confused at first as to why I was getting so many berries but never saw any flowers, now I realized it probably flowered well before I got it and the fruit is just now coming up. The attached picture was taken a couple day ago. Such a cool cacti.

Just wanted to share

Nice to see some new life in that old thread of mine. I've gained a lot of excellent experience with Epithelanthas since then, and yes the genus does produce such wonderfully odd cacti. E. micromeris is self-fertile, so you are correct -- flowers in early spring, then fruits in late spring and summer. The fruit crop on mine is pretty much done for the growing season, although I wouldn't be surprised if one or two pop out before summer is done.

[DaveW]

Yes in Epithelantha the fruits are more spectacular than the flowers.

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/EPITHE ... omeris.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some Epithelantha flowers can be pretty small, but in some species can be quite a bit larger. Flowers vary from white to pink according to species:-

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/epithela ... nteresting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Steve Johnson]

Yes in Epithelantha the fruits are more spectacular than the flowers.

Indeed, indeed! Here's a pic of my E. micromeris at the beginning of last summer:



Although the flowers aren't much to look at, it's always fun to see what comes out of them.

[iann]

Maybe your flowers were finished in June, but it would be very easy to miss them anyway. Unlike E. bokei, which is still flowering away now whenever it gets water.

bokei-0816.jpg (62.06 KiB) Viewed 1849 times

[rtb1980]

My micromeris is blooming!!

This is the first time I've seen it bloom. It has had quite a few flowers over the past couple of weeks.

It's nice to finally see flowers on this one after having seen so much fruit come out of it last season.

[rtb1980]

My mircromeris has babies!! I took a quick video and some photos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE-XbmJ7MTk

I'm wondering how long I should leave them in the pot before removing and re potting them?

[Steve Johnson]

I've been asking myself the same question, as a successful pot-sowing experiment produced 3 lovely seedlings coming up on 4 years old. They're still in the parent plant's quarters, and at some point they'll need to go off on their own before competition with the parent for water and nutrients becomes a problem. Going by gut instinct, the 5-year mark should be about right, so I'm leaning toward this coming spring when my seedlings go into their own tiny pots.

By the way, nice video!

[rtb1980]

Thanks Steve, I'm glad you like the video!

I think the 5 year mark sounds about right. I do have a larger baby in the same pot, that was there when I bought the cactus just under 2 years ago. I'm guessing that one might be about 3-5 years old but I'm not sure. Can you post a pic of your 4 year old seedlings?

[Steve Johnson]

Can you post a pic of your 4 year old seedlings?

I don't have any current photos of the seedlings, but they'll be covered in my big annual End-of-summer review over at Member Topics. I do about 99% of my work on the forum over there, so you might enjoy what I posted last summer:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=34730&p=327686#p327686

Went back and looked at the timeline I described in that post -- 2 of the 3 seedlings are coming up on 3 years old, not 4 as I thought. I'll stick by the 5-year mark re. when they should go off on their own. Such being the case, the E. micromeris "family" should be fine where it is until 2019. In the meantime, I'll be giving my camera a real workout when I photograph everything at the end of September, so we'll have some nice before-and-after pics of the family in my 2017 review.