do cacti produce sports?

[marywachs]

Hi

I have a multi-trunked columnar cactus I don't know name of but stout six-ribbed trunk with flat raised white non-thorny pattern of "spines." Last summer a trunk broke off; it reroot near place it broke; the roots where it broke then produced a pup. Now I've discovered a new branch off the rerooted section, only the branch has red thorny spines and five ribs. Can a cactus produce a sport?

[CactusFanDan]

I'm not sure what you mean by sports, but numbers of ribs, numbers and sizes of spines are not set in stone. They can change a lot depending on conditions. It sounds like you might have a Pachycereus pringlei? In which case new spines are red and change colour to white-grey with age. Pictures would help to get across what you mean.

[DaveW]

Short answer is yes, just like any other plants can. However as Dan says cacti can both gain and loose ribs, also offsets at first can sometimes look different to mature stems. New spines are often different colour to older spines after they have matured and hardened.

Note how different young plants look to the one with mature spination here, and note how different the spination of the small offsets is to the mature head:-

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

As to gaining and loosing ribs see:-

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Regarding sports, cristations or variegations do often appear as an abnormal branch or offset on cacti this way and are often propagated by removing them and re-rooting.