hegar wrote:Hello K.W.,
of course, I am not going to remove all of my prickly pear cacti. After all, they are the national flower of Mexico!
I was thinking of keeping the prettier ones, like O. aciculata and some small kinds. We did have some rain and because the soil became very soggy, one of my big O. engelmannii "Texas Red" (because it does have brick-red flowers) toppled over. The stem segments were too heavy and the roots could no longer hold them. The plant is near the irrigation system, which most likely led to its rapid growth. In the wild this probably does not happen often, because of less available moisture and the rocky terrain in which these plants are found.
The biomass that these Opuntia spp. are producing is amazing. Because of that and also because these plants are so tough - they can survive for long times without sunlight - even NASA was considering to take these plants along, if the moon is ever to be colonized. You most likely know, that several of the species of this genus are used as human food.
Harald
Good afternoon Harald,
thanks for the explanation, very interesting!
(But, Opuntia are not my thing. . .
)
Best wishes
K.W.
PS Harald, are you affected by the bad weather in Texas? I saw it on the news tonight.
Good morning dear cacti friends,
last weekend was Pentecost.
The weather was medium, Monday morning it was raining.
The holiday gave me time before the horse race to make a lot of pictures.
May 25th, Photos of wet plants - no cacti flowers.
Again some Ferocactus thorns
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other thorns too. . .
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end of post 1/4We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
