Escobaria kreckii

[Tony]

I picked up a pair of these little gems recently from cactus data and I cant find a single reference on the web to this name.
Is it just really new or a really old name of a plant that is already in cultivation under another name?

IMG_20140306_163642_891.jpg (31.17 KiB) Viewed 4475 times

IMG_20140306_163631_218.jpg (35.86 KiB) Viewed 4475 times

Thanks!

[CactusFanDan]

How does this look?
http://cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Esc ... huahuensis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tony]

I did look at that one Dan and do agree it looks very similar, even has a tuberous root.
Hopefully they will bloom soon.

[SDR]

http://www.escobaria.cz/en/ese_index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; has a bunch of discussion on 'Mysterious and Unknown Escobarias etc.'

[DaveW]

Hi Tony,

The dealer evidently cannot spell E. European names. It should be E. kracikii, "named in honour of the Czech cactus-grower and researcher Karel Kracik."

http://www.kaktusy.cz/eshop/printable.p ... ctID=61341" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.cl-cactus.com/fn.asp?FnID=1116" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is also a Corythantha kracikii

http://public.fotki.com/suleymandemir/c ... cikii.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Whether the two are being mixed up or not I don't know, but yours looks like an Escobaria rather than a Coryphantha. Interesting your label gives Chihuahua as it's habitat, but both links above give Durango, so it could be an as yet unpublished Escobaria found by Kracik in addition to the Coryphantha named after him. The Kaktusy mention of strong spines sounds more like the Coryphantha? This illustration below certainly looks more like the Coryphantha:-

http://kolovicsjozsef.lapunk.hu/?modul= ... om=1177189" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[peterb]

As far as I can see, your plant is not even close to Escobaria kracikii, which is the same as Coryphantha kracikii. It looks like henricksonii to me. (as Dan mentioned above, synonym with chihuahuensis).

peterb

[Saxicola]

If you got it from Woody directly I'll bet it came with some elaborate story relating to the finding and collecting of the species!

[DaveW]

The trouble often is a plant originally labelled as Escobaria sp. Kracikii meaning an Escobaria species collected by Kracikii tends to eventually get labelled as though kracikii or the miswrite kreckii was a specific name, particularly if the shorthand Escobaria Kracikii was on the original label. Plant localities often also do get wrongly embodied into names on labels and a variety from say Tamaulipas sometimes becomes v. tamaulipas, which is a give away as it is an incorrect botanical ending for a specific or varietal name.

I would guess what you have is an unidentified, or yet unnamed Escobaria found by Kracikii, even coming from a different state to Coryphantha kracikii according to the label, plus with a tuberous root. Therefore I would label it Escobaria sp. Kracikii with a capital K to show it is not a species name since according to the "Rules" all botanical names below that of genus start with a lower case letter and never a capital.

[Tony]

Definitely not C. kracikii. It looks like henricksonii to me too.

If you got it from Woody directly I'll bet it came with some elaborate story relating to the finding and collecting of the species!

Apparently it is a SB collection and "you will not find it anywhere else".
I will see him again on Thursday night at the San Gabriel meeting and see if I can narrow it down.

[peterb]

Ha, well, keep us posted. SB has been selling henricksonii for a long time. Nice plants that form a caudex, unusual for Escobaria.

peterb

[Tony]

E. henricksonii?

summer pix 2014 026.JPG (70.2 KiB) Viewed 4215 times

Hello everyone. Sorry I have not been contributing much for awhile. Not only have I been swamped at work, I lost the use of my work PC and my old Smart phone made it very difficult if not impossible to post pix and text, so I gave up and have been lurking when I can find time. I have a new, much larger Smart phone so hopefully It will be much easier to post now.
Was never able to get any other info from the seller regarding this plant. They did both eventually bloom and the flowers do look right for henricksonii. All attempts so far to cross pollinate have failed to produce fruit, which leads me to believe they are clones.
I will try again next year.

[greenknight]

Ya, I'd consider that ID confirmed. Good luck on the pollination efforts.