uebelmannia pectinifera and other rare cacti

[DaveW]

Yes I have an Aztekium ritteri on a graft, but cannot decide whether it is normal and just freely proliferating because it is grafted, or a multi-proliferous form that has been used for grafting simply because it produces so many offsets available as scions? I prefer them on their own roots but, they are difficult to degraft and slow.

ritteri.jpg (66.74 KiB) Viewed 1974 times

You can get seed raised Aztekium hintonii and Geohintonia's from David Quail at Aristocacti in the UK. Aztekium valdesii's are not so easy to obtain yet.

[Mrs.Green]

Mrs.Green,

Yes, it's the same breeder. I managed to have a chat with him during a trip to Thailand and it appears that only 1/100,000 seeds sown are competition-tier gymnos. He prices these accordingly. I would personally rather buy 100,000 gymnocalycium seeds (they are extremely cheap and easy to ship in) but sometimes the temptation proves too much.

H

Thank you HudsonLH One out of 100 000... Suddenly the pricetag on such a Gymno didn’t seem to be that crazy.. I can’t even imagine how much space on much have to sow and grow so many plants? Would be interesting to know how early the seedlings show the wanted attributes? I look forward to seeing pics of your Gymno, when you come home.

[Hero878]

Yes I have an Aztekium ritteri on a graft, but cannot decide whether it is normal and just freely proliferating because it is grafted, or a multi-proliferous form that has been used for grafting simply because it produces so many offsets available as scions? I prefer them on their own roots but, they are difficult to degraft and slow.


ritteri.jpg


You can get seed raised Aztekium hintonii and Geohintonia's from David Quail at Aristocacti in the UK. Aztekium valdesii's are not so easy to obtain yet.

That's a very nice specimen thanks for sharing. I also have a feeling that they do form a lot of offsets due to the grafting.
As you can probably make out in my photo my A. Ritteri is single form at the moment. But I'll see in time how it develops.
I'll look into those other AZTEKIUMS you mentioned. For these I think I prefer grafted as I simply don't have the patience for them to only grow 1mm a year haha

[DaveW]

The other Aztekium's grow much faster than ritteri. They are now becoming available at plant marts in the UK or some nurseries.

Aztekium hintonii (I grew this one from seed. It produces lines of flocking similar to an Astrophytum)

hintonii.jpg (84.18 KiB) Viewed 1957 times

Aztekium valdesii

valdezii.jpg (86.89 KiB) Viewed 1957 times

[Hero878]

Very nice specimens Dave! I'm going to another cactus mart later this month in Kent at Lullingtone Castle so I'll see what they have. Talking of rare cacti I got a cutting of a stenocereus eruca aka creeping devil as a gift. I was reading about them today and it sure sounds like one of the most interesting cacti I've ever heard about in the way that they grow.
However I doubt it's as rare and expensive as this article states https://www.oneearth.org/species-of-the ... ing-devil/ haha

[DaveW]

Yes I remember "The Creeping Devils". One chap in the UK used to grow his in a length of plastic guttering with stop ends on filled with some potting soil and hung up in the greenhouse and just let it creep along! Others have used the plastic window boxes.

See:-

https://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=44718

https://forum.cactofili.org/viewtopic.php?t=4298

Or even made special wooden boxes for them, but they never seem long enough. Not the easiest type growth for greenhouse culture.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxserp=0

They normally root down into the soil as they creep along with just the end upturned. I believe the original plant eventually dies off behind them in habitat as the branches continue to re-root and crawl along?

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxserp=0

[Hero878]

Yes I remember "The Creeping Devils". One chap in the UK used to grow his in a length of plastic guttering with stop ends on filled with some potting soil and hung up in the greenhouse and just let it creep along! Others have used the plastic window boxes.

See:-

https://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=44718

https://forum.cactofili.org/viewtopic.php?t=4298

Or even made special wooden boxes for them, but they never seem long enough. Not the easiest type growth for greenhouse culture.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxserp=0

They normally root down into the soil as they creep along with just the end upturned. I believe the original plant eventually dies off behind them in habitat as the branches continue to re-root and crawl along?

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ajaxserp=0

Thanks, Dave for those interesting posts. They seem to have massive cuttings, mines only about an inch so I should be able to keep it growing indoors at home for some time Yeah you're right that the back end dies off and the growing part uses the nutrients when it rots. Can't wait to see how my cutting grows

[HudsonLH]

Mrs.Green,

Yes, it's the same breeder. I managed to have a chat with him during a trip to Thailand and it appears that only 1/100,000 seeds sown are competition-tier gymnos. He prices these accordingly. I would personally rather buy 100,000 gymnocalycium seeds (they are extremely cheap and easy to ship in) but sometimes the temptation proves too much.

H

Thank you HudsonLH One out of 100 000... Suddenly the pricetag on such a Gymno didn’t seem to be that crazy.. I can’t even imagine how much space on much have to sow and grow so many plants? Would be interesting to know how early the seedlings show the wanted attributes? I look forward to seeing pics of your Gymno, when you come home.

Mrs.Green

Not a lot of space, surprisingly. I have managed to accommodate roughly ten to fifteen thousand on a small 3 x 3 space. Gymnos do not mind the squeeze and those with poor characteristics (I.e., the non-variegates) are weeded off long before maturity. In my experience, chance of variegation is quite variable between batches, but can range from 0% to 50%.

H

[DaveW]

Yes the Rose Breeders dump hundreds if not thousands of the seedlings they raise to flowering size in order to get one that is really new. The problem with cactus collectors is they cross their plants and produce indifferent hybrids, or those little different to existing ones, however tend to keep rather than destroy them. Also since terrestrial cacti are slow growing if you are breeding for flowers you may have to keep many indifferent plants for years until you see them flower and can then dispose of them. I suppose that is one advantage with Trichocereus hybrids, if they prove worthless you can at least use them as grafting stocks!

Orchid cacti are an example where there are many supposedly new hybrids that are hardly different to previous ones yet get given a new name. However even with roses many so called new ones are hardly different from past varieties, they just claim they are hardier or more disease resistant in order to sell them. Otherwise looking very similar to older varieties why would anybody want to buy new roses? With so many past hybrid roses it is hard to come up with a new hybrid that is really very different.

Unless you are very lucky as Hudson says, you need to sow thousands of seeds and eventually dump 90% or more of the plants raised to get any hybrid that is really new or worthwhile.

From the Web:-

"Each year Peter Beales Roses launch their newest and most exciting roses. These new varieties are usually launched at prestigious flower shows, like the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Typically it will take between 5 to 8 years for a rose to get to this stage and out of the few roses launched each year, around 50,000 others would have been rejected!"

[DWDogwood]

Ubelmannia pectinifera v. eriocactoides -edited nn.
2 older parents and a couple of offspring.
The supposed “new taxon” published a few years ago.
It’s a nice variation, whatever it’s true distinction from the type form.

9135A5D7-0093-4A1E-B12C-D8310A85F234.jpeg (45.46 KiB) Viewed 1881 times

[DaveW]

Nice plants Dogwood!

Note it is Uebelmannia pectinifera v. eriocactoides (not eriosyzoides). Eriocactoides since it looks like as Eriocactus, the genus or Notocactus section that contained the golden spined leninghausii's etc). I have also seen them sold under the wrong "eriosyzoides" name though, so maybe that was its pre publication nomen nudum?

It was published here.

https://cactiguide.com/cactus_co/New_Uebelmannia.pdf

As you will see from the older plants pictured in the link, and as your older ones illustrate, though they look distinctive as young plants all the columnar old plants of Uebelmannia tend to look like the subspecies horrida when mature and so loose their individual characteristics. However they are unlikely to get to that really columnar stage in our collections.

[DWDogwood]

Thanks Dave, duly noted. I received the two larger plants from the nursery belong to one of the guys in in the article when they first offered them on their website as tiny seedlings.
I don’t know how I conflated the v. name with eriosyzoides….
There has to be something around with that one.

[DaveW]

There is of course an Eriosyce eriosyzoides from Chile.