Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

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rsales3
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Location: Orange County, California

Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by rsales3 »

I picked up this Rebutia s. muscula yesterday after I noticed it looked liked it was overgrown and needed it's dumb strawflower removed. I usually won't buy the cactus with strawflowers but, I did not have one of these in my collection. It looked liked the hot glue person went crazy with the glue leaving a mess all over the poor guy. So I carefully removed the mess and was shocked that the glue actually filled an indentation at the top of the rebutia. Unfortunately many of the spines came off with the glue. WTH are they thinking. My next action was to remove the hardened peat clump from the roots. I was surprised to find that there were flowers and buds growing down between the root clump and the pot, many were dead but one looked alive. Within a few minutes of cleaning the roots the flower actually began to open. I then re-potted the rebutia in my home brew mix leaving the flower above mix level. My new concern now is the cavity on top of the plant, hopefully it will fill in over time and the new cactus will thrive.
Original pot with glue removed
Original pot with glue removed
Rebutia muscula1.jpg (52.48 KiB) Viewed 1434 times
Original pot top view
Original pot top view
Rebutia muscula2.jpg (59.31 KiB) Viewed 1434 times
Re-potted with room to grow
Re-potted with room to grow
Rebutia muscula4.jpg (48.45 KiB) Viewed 1434 times
Re-potted top view
Re-potted top view
Rebutia muscula5.jpg (55.3 KiB) Viewed 1434 times
Exposed buds
Exposed buds
Rebutia muscula6.jpg (51.87 KiB) Viewed 1434 times
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teo
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by teo »

Looks more like a Rebutia marsoneri to me (than a muscula)
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rsales3
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Location: Orange County, California

Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by rsales3 »

It does look like a Rebutis marsoneri. The pot appears to be mis-labeled. The indentation on top looks normal for the marsoneri expect for the missing spines. THANKS.
DaveW
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by DaveW »

The plant is not Rebutia muscula, a totally different species, but a Rebutia miniscula form. (muscula = like a mouse - covered with soft white spines and miniscula = miniscule or small)

I always thought Rebutia marsoneri was yellow to yellow orange flowered? Though there do seem to be a lot of wrongly named Rebutia's going around, just "Google" any name and you will find illustrations with all flower colours wrongly listed under that name on the Web.

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebutia_marsoneri" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From the length of the flower I would think your plant is Rebutia grandiflora, or R. minuscula v. grandiflora as it's sometimes known since R. minuscula has much shorter flower tubes.:-

http://www.mindenpictures.com/search/pr ... 27416.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The depression in the crown of Rebutia's is quite normal and if the glue has not killed the growing point it should grow out OK. In any case you can always take of an offset if not and grow a normal plant.
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rsales3
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by rsales3 »

Thanks Dave. You make some valid points about the Rebutia minuscula as a likely candidate.
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teo
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by teo »

After looking at both R. marsoneri and R. minuscula (and my plant which I have labelled marsoneri) I am really not sure which is which so I will just leave it as it is :D
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CactusMad
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by CactusMad »

Hi,
That is definately a Rebutia minuscula without a doubt.Rebutia minuscula also have the indentation in the top and have that colour flower.Rebutia marsoneri have yellow flowers.There is also a possibility that it is a cross between the 2 but if it was mine I would label it Rebutia minuscula.

:)
DaveW
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by DaveW »

The problem with all these old original Rebutia's is many forms have been described in the past, but later often just been reduced to synonymy, therefore whether you just recognise R. minuscula and consider R. grandiflora a normal variation of it is just a matter of opinion. R. grandiflora is just a form with larger longer flowers than minuscula.

Rather out of date now this online book by Fearn & Percy but it does cover the "old" original Rebutias:-

http://cactusbiblio.free.fr/Fearn/Rebutia.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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teo
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by teo »

OK, which one is this then:
My Rebutia
My Rebutia
DSC_0076-c.JPG (43.38 KiB) Viewed 1374 times
DaveW
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by DaveW »

Rebutia marsoneri I think Teo, there have been a few forms of it described in the past:-

http://www.gargamel-cactus.com/photos/i ... _marsoneri" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other one with a yellow flower you are likely to come across is Rebutia senilis v. kesselringianus, but that has greenish not initially red buds as yours does:-

http://jancap.cz/Kaktusy/rebutia/slides ... giana.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regarding Rebutia minuscula, here is a picture Ralph Martin sent me, as you can see the flowers are much shorter on the type species than on v. grandiflora.
R. minuscula.jpg
R. minuscula.jpg (84.75 KiB) Viewed 1370 times
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rsales3
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Re: Sharing my Rebutia re-pot rescue

Post by rsales3 »

Thank you all for the rebutia insight.
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