Search found 7371 matches

by DaveW
Thu Feb 22, 2024 10:18 am
Forum: General
Topic: Is there a market for rare seed grown cacti species?
Replies: 9
Views: 470

Re: Is there a market for rare seed grown cacti species?

Rarity is often a matter of opinion and can vary county to country depending what's freely available in that country. Also some species are more desirable to collectors than others, therefore a not very attractive species may in fact be quite rare but there is not a widespread market for it. Take fo...
by DaveW
Tue Feb 20, 2024 5:53 pm
Forum: Cacti Identification
Topic: Is my plant Cephalocereus senilis or something similar?
Replies: 12
Views: 583

Re: Is my plant Cephalocereus senilis or something similar?

The crown is etiolated through growing in too low light. The centre should have similar spination to the sides. If kept in good light it should improve.
by DaveW
Fri Feb 09, 2024 10:25 am
Forum: General
Topic: Cactus Explorer
Replies: 1
Views: 286

Cactus Explorer

Latest edition of free to download Cactus Explorer is now available, plus all back issues.

https://www.cactusexplorers.org.uk/journal1.htm
by DaveW
Thu Feb 08, 2024 10:32 am
Forum: Cacti Identification
Topic: Got a cactus for gift
Replies: 5
Views: 468

Re: Got a cactus for gift

Incidentally Ossy the easy way to tell a Gymnocalycium apart from many other genera is neither the buds, flower tube or fruits have any hairs or bristles on them like your Notocactus (Parodia) does. "The genus name Gymnocalycium (from Greek, "naked calyx") refers to the flower buds be...
by DaveW
Wed Feb 07, 2024 11:17 am
Forum: Cacti Identification
Topic: Got a cactus for gift
Replies: 5
Views: 468

Re: Got a cactus for gift

Agree with Nino, but probably the longest spined form of Parodia (Notocactus) mammulosa known an N. turecekianus. https://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/NOTOCACTUS/Notocactus_turecekianus/Notocactus_turecekianus/Notocactus_turecekianus.htm Notocactus mammulosus used to be split into three different speci...
by DaveW
Wed Feb 07, 2024 10:42 am
Forum: General
Topic: Why can’t most cacti be Blue?
Replies: 3
Views: 418

Re: Why can’t most cacti be Blue?

As Spence says any blue in cacti is caused by the scattering of light and not true blue pigmentation. Cacti cannot have true blue flowers either. The only apparently blue flower = Wittia (Psudorhipsalis) amazonica is caused by its textured surface scattering light as in Morpho butterflies wings and ...
by DaveW
Tue Jan 30, 2024 10:37 am
Forum: Cacti Identification
Topic: Grew this from an old seed packet labelled Opuntia strigil, does that ID look correct to you all?
Replies: 6
Views: 492

Re: Grew this from an old seed packet labelled Opuntia strigil, does that ID look correct to you all?

Having glochids and sometimes barbed spines Opuntia's are probably some of the most "antisocial" cacti, hence Antticepp's joke. They also tend not to be grown much in countries where they cannot grow outdoors therefore take up too much greenhouse space as with tall Cerei. To those of us ou...
by DaveW
Tue Jan 30, 2024 10:21 am
Forum: General
Topic: My first success growing a "rare" cactus species from seed: Echinopsis coronata!
Replies: 10
Views: 515

Re: My first success growing a "rare" cactus species from seed: Echinopsis coronata!

Well grown. I am sure your Florida climate helps too!. Not a species I know, but evidently named by Cardenas. Different authorities treat it as a separate species but David Hunt considered it Echinopsis bridgesii subsp. vallegrandensis, but then Hunt lumped a lot of things! Cardenas published it in ...
by DaveW
Mon Jan 29, 2024 11:18 am
Forum: General
Topic: New Mexico Cactus Research
Replies: 0
Views: 475

New Mexico Cactus Research

Hi All If you are as old as me you may have obtained seed from New Mexico Cactus Research = Horst Kuenzler. You may still find material grown from their seed with HK numbers. They suddenly seemed to disappear and I found this article about it. At the end there are links to pictures of some of the pl...
by DaveW
Fri Jan 26, 2024 10:20 am
Forum: General
Topic: Birth of the Succulent?
Replies: 3
Views: 424

Re: Birth of the Succulent?

Mat on the BCSS Forum posted the link to the original article. https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1100628108 Presumably something akin to Pereskia would be the least ev0lved, but of course even Pereskia has probably changed from the original ancestor of the Cactaceae. The problem for the Cac...
by DaveW
Thu Jan 25, 2024 11:39 am
Forum: General
Topic: Birth of the Succulent?
Replies: 3
Views: 424

Birth of the Succulent?

Don't know if this has ever been posted before?

https://news.brown.edu/articles/2011/05/cacti
by DaveW
Sat Jan 06, 2024 7:17 pm
Forum: Cacti Identification
Topic: ID Help please
Replies: 10
Views: 7017

Re: ID Help please

Also check against the description of Mammillaria huitzilopochtli v. niduliformis.

https://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CAC ... duliformis
by DaveW
Mon Jan 01, 2024 10:43 am
Forum: General
Topic: Blooming cactus for the tropics
Replies: 4
Views: 3845

Re: Blooming cactus for the tropics

Not very big flowers but interesting cephalism bearing plants are Melocatus which we in cooler climes have a problem with but suit yours. https://succulentalley.com/melocactus/ As Anttisepp says the rainforest type of cacti given some shade would probably do well in your area, plus have reasonably l...
by DaveW
Mon Dec 25, 2023 10:18 am
Forum: Cultivation
Topic: Akadama?
Replies: 7
Views: 3853

Re: Akadama?

As Ben says it depends what is available at a cheap price in your country depending if it has to be imported. You use a lot of pumice in the USA, but it is expensive in the UK since it has to be imported. I looked up Akadama:- https://bonsaitonight.com/2016/07/15/all-about-akadama/ The British were ...
by DaveW
Sat Dec 23, 2023 1:33 pm
Forum: Photography
Topic: New Smart Phones take better photos than my Cannon
Replies: 4
Views: 6794

Re: New Smart Phones take better photos than my Cannon

It depends how you want to show your images. If you want prints the size of a house door then high megapixel cameras are the answer. If you only want to digitally project them or view on a computer screen them probably 8 megapixels is good enough since that's about the resolution of most computer sc...