saguaro growth

[Briguytm]

Found this saguaro while hiking yesterday. Any clues on whats going on? Doesn't seem like cresting to me.


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[Nic]

It looks like it has gone monstrose.

[DaveW]

Interesting. Agreed Nic, cristation is not the only form of monstrose growth in cacti. There are plenty of reports of cristate Carnegia's, but I have not seen any before for monstrose ones, so maybe it is rare, or do people simply rank cristates as more desirable and not report the monstrose ones?

https://mycotopia.net/topic/62972-what- ... te-growth/

The growth is reminiscent of the "Totem Pole Cactus" Lophocereus schotii f. monstrosus.

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/LOPHOC ... truosa.htm

[ElieEstephane]

I wonder if someone could do in vitro micropropagation on the monstrose part that would be one heck of a cactus!

[Briguytm]

Re: DaveW I'm a pretty prolific hiker/rock climber here in Southern Arizona and I've seen plenty of Crested Saguaro but I've never seen this. I also asked a fellow native climber and he said he's never seen anything like this either. And doing a quick image search I can't find anything resembling it either.

Re: elieestaphane,

What is vitro micropropagation? Also Saguaros are a protected species so I'm sure doing anything to it would be illegal with out a special permit.

[stefan m.]

The stupid thing with saguaros is their protected status, their slow growth speed, and inability to be grafted.
Although the last one could blamed on the lack of research . Which is My guess is that straggly growth was the cactus' attempt to branch , gone wrong. Like daveW said, it resembles pachycerus schotti monstrose and with good reason- the plants are related after all. So to sum, the plant tried to branch, for some reason the stem cell tissue mutated, resulted in a monstrose growth. While crestate saguaros do exist, they do not look like what we are seeing on the photos, then this is probably the first time you actually see monstrose carnegiea gigantea. Unfortunately, due to US law and biological restrictions, we will be unable to replicate the results and create monstrose saguaro clones

[ElieEstephane]

What is vitro micropropagation? Also Saguaros are a protected species so I'm sure doing anything to it would be illegal with out a special permit.

I'm not exactly a biologist to explain it correctly but in my undertanding the process consists of taking a small patch of tissue, placing it in nutrient solution and multiplying the cells in the lab to obtain new clone plants.
It wouldn't be exactly illegal since you only need a very small patch of tissue.

[stefan m.]

elieestephane
in a nutshell you need stem cells. While on cacti it main stemcells are in the center, the apex, the secondary backup stem cells are on the areoles.
unfortunately there are no areoles or growing tip on the monstrose growth.

[Briguytm]

elieestephane
in a nutshell you need stem cells. While on cacti it main stemcells are in the center, the apex, the secondary backup stem cells are on the areoles.
unfortunately there are no areoles or growing tip on the monstrose growth.

The growth had patches of white fuzz? Sorry I don't know the terminology for this but it's what you find on the tips of golden barrel cactus that the flowers and fruit grow from. Would that be a growing tip?

[stefan m.]

Briguytm although you were on point about the barel cactus thing(i love barrel cacti), the distorted mess of white fuzz isnt really a viable source. The difference between this and other monstrose cacti , like pachycereus schotti, cereus monstrose , trichocreus brigesi monst. and mammialaria monstrose still have their fuzzy bits (areoles)intact(or at least in a relatively normal form, eg cereus monstrose flowers, the others branch) This mess, while interesting is too chaotic to be of any practical use .

[ElieEstephane]

elieestephane
in a nutshell you need stem cells. While on cacti it main stemcells are in the center, the apex, the secondary backup stem cells are on the areoles.
unfortunately there are no areoles or growing tip on the monstrose growth.

The growth had patches of white fuzz? Sorry I don't know the terminology for this but it's what you find on the tips of golden barrel cactus that the flowers and fruit grow from. Would that be a growing tip?

That would be an areole
On closer looks at the picture, i don't see any areoles. Interesting

[tumamoc]

That's neat. I've also seen Ferocactus wislizenii exhibit the same type of "totem pole" knobby growth.

[stefan m.]

tumamoc far more common than monstrose saguaro though.

[TimN]

I believe this is actually a Gall. I've posted pictures in the past of a very similar plant that was growing in North Phoenix. The cactus appears to be gone now. Not sure if it died or was "transplanted".

I observed it for a few years until I stopped taking that route. Eventually, the gall stopped growing and resumed normal growth. The gall on that one was crazy, it had spines and areoles in places. Interesting, but not an attractive protuberance.

I saw a reference that said P. Pringilii monstrose showed "gall-like" growth pattern.

Search for "Saguaro crown gall" to find the two posts.

[stefan m.]

this post is the one you are refering to
http://cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25021
Its slightly different. This one is clearly a misshapen branch though.