Do my eyes deceive me...

[CactusFanDan]

or does this tiny seedling have a flower bud? The plant in question is about 1cm in diameter with what looks a lot like a flower bud.

The offending article ;)

Eriosyce sp PEM 504 (3).JPG (35.87 KiB) Viewed 788 times

Close up.

Eriosyce sp PEM 504 (2)2.JPG (40.8 KiB) Viewed 788 times

This is one of this year's seedlings, so this plant will be around 5 months old now, but that's still incredibly young for any plant to be flowering. I doubt the bud will mature properly, but if it does, that would be great! Also interesting is that this plant is an unknown Eriosyce species from Salinas, Argentina. The seedlings looked similar to my E. bulbocalyx seedlings for the first few months, but they're looking more like E. vertongenii or E. villicumensis now. Rather interesting.

[*Barracuda_52*]

WOW thats crazy post pics if it is a flower and blooms.. Nice looking seedlings..

[DaveW]

You do occasionally get precocious cacti. Only problem may be if that buds terminal, therefore the plant will have to offset or die.

[peterb]

Dave, not sure what you mean?

peterb

[DaveW]

By precocious cacti I mean plants that flower very much younger than normal, occasionally as extremely young plants. If the bud is an extension of the central growing point that stem can not grow any further so would need to offset or die. If the bud is from an areole off centre it could continue growing. It is unusual, but a few cacti like Pterocactus do produce terminal flowers on their shoots, therefore have to branch below last years flower when growing again. It's an occasional freak happening on some other genera, such as when you see things like an offset turn into a bud on Rebutia's.

Note the terminal buds on the Pterocactus here. Once the bud has formed that stem can grow no further:-

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/PTEROC ... scheri.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[peterb]

I wasn't aware of any other cacti producing terminal buds, knew about Pterocactus.

peterb

[CactusFanDan]

I hope it does open. I don't think it's terminal either, since the bud is off-centre from the growth point, although I've managed to get it to look right in the middle here.

[Peterthecactusguy]

I wouldnt worry too much about it damaging the growth point, if it does abort. There is one areole newer than the bud (or at least fairly new) below the bud. The growth point I think is between that areole and the bud, but I of course could be wrong.