I need help IDing a blue cactus.

[TexasPricklyPiglet]

Hello everyone! My dear fiance bought this cactus for me. It's blue and it is gorgeous. The thing is, I do not know what kind of cactus it is, and I do not know how the grower got the spines to be this blue color. I thought that it was painted, however, it has grown since it was gifted to me, and it has some new areoles at the top, and they start off looking white, but then they kind of acquire this light blue color. I don't know if I'm just seeing/thinking things that aren't there and that this is impossible, but that's what I think that I have been seeing. If you have any information about this, I'd be glad if you could share it. Thanks!

[Saxicola]

I think it is Mammillaria veltula ssp. gracilis 'Arizona Snowcap'. It is a blue dye as the spines should be white. It definitely does not produce that color on its own! I'm guessing you are just seeing residual blue color that was on the tips but not very visible until it grew. As it keeps growing the new spines will definitely be pure white. Not sure if the blue ever fades away completely on the dyed spines. Hopefully the sun causes it to fade in time.

[TexasPricklyPiglet]

Thank you for the ID Saxicola! I really appreciate it. Though I do hope that the color stays, I actually like it very much that way. My favorite color is blue and I think it looks gorgeous like this. It would like beautiful either way, but I really do like the blue.

[Samee]

Yup dye is used, if you have not changed the pot its in, you will see the dye at the bottom of the pot (if you decided to change pots). I think this is temporary till the dye finishes out. Im basing this on pics Ive seen.

[TexasPricklyPiglet]

Thank you Samee. I do hope that it can manage to stay blue for a little while longer. It looks pretty awesome this way.

[DaveW]

I think they use harmless food dye, so if it turns you on you could keep "touching up it's roots" like bottle blonds do, probably with an artists paint brush! Blue is my favourite colour too, but not for dying cacti. Who knows perhaps they will start making those plastic cacti with blue spines to solve the reversion problem, that would be more acceptable to most of us!

http://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-p ... lants.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Strange they even make replicas of badly grown cacti where the stem has had a constriction then grown again. I presume because they look like the badly grown cacti the buyer is familiar with. Do the plastic imitation artificial grafted cacti grow faster than the non grafted ones?

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Yes Mammilaria Gracilis ( sport ) as we call it over the pond here.

Snowcap will work too.

=^o^=

[TexasPricklyPiglet]

I think they use harmless food dye, so if it turns you on you could keep "touching up it's roots" like bottle blonds do, probably with an artists paint brush! Blue is my favourite colour too, but not for dying cacti. Who knows perhaps they will start making those plastic cacti with blue spines to solve the reversion problem, that would be more acceptable to most of us!

http://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-p ... lants.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Strange they even make replicas of badly grown cacti where the stem has had a constriction then grown again. I presume because they look like the badly grown cacti the buyer is familiar with. Do the plastic imitation artificial grafted cacti grow faster than the non grafted ones?

Hahaha! I just might touch it up if it starts to fade. Normally I would also have something against dying a cactus too, but I don't know, perhaps because it was a thoughtful gift from my fiance who was trying to cheer me up at the time, it has sentimental value and I like it just the way it is. He bought the last one, apparently the rest of the people here couldn't get enough of them either. It's the same with the moon cactus. I know some do not like them because they are like novelty toys, but I think they're pretty and I don't mind them (though I don't own one). But I understand our desire to keep cacti natural and beautiful, just the way they are born, I'm the same way too (most of the time )

Some of those fake cacti are semi-convincing, but more eerie than anything I think. I would be more interested in the other novelty items, like the cactus pen. That's something for the enthusiast!

Thank you very much for the info DaveW!

And thank you as well Eutow_Intermedium for the second opinion on the ID!

[Eutow_Intermedium]

Thats ok

I'm not frankly all that keen on the Moon cactus. Though they have been around for quite some years now since Hibotan in Japan.

I only have one Moon cactus and that is a very deep purple one that doesn't appear to look much different to G. Mihanovichii itself, it produces offsets and also the dark purple one produces flowers too, which not all Moon cactus do.

I'm not really into the bright coloured ones. That why I thought if I bought one i'd get the darkest bodied one I could find. Saying then the seasons new growth is a bit on the Red/Pink side . But I don't mind a small amount of pink, them parts may also turn purple like the rest of the body with age anyway . .

=^-^=

Eutow_Int*