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Gymnocalycium horstii ssp. buenekeri.
A big old plant from a friend that died. This is the pink flowered form of Gymnocalycium horsti, considered by some to be a separate species. G. horstii (type) has a white flower and a shiny green body that looks as though it has been varnished, whereas ssp. bueneckeri has a matt green body and a pink flower. If you search for illustrations of horstii on the web you usually find ssp. buenekeri under both names since the white flowered horstii seems much rarer in cultivation these days than it was in the past.

Nice to cherish an old friend with an exotic specimen.

I have a plant of the same species that is now in bud and they should open any day now.

What will be August's plant of the month Dave or can any one put in what they think?

One of the flowers on my Gymnocalycium horstii buenekeri came out this morning and it isn't as pink as the flower on yours.

Been too busy repotting plus other things I put off for far too long to take many pictures this year for Cactus of the Month, plus also lost a lot of my older shots due to a computer problem. That one dated from 2013! Anybody can post Cactus of the Month and the rest join in I believe?

As we are on Gymno's one of the few I have so far processed.

Gymnocalycium hyptiacanthum
If yours is a mainly white flower with just slight pink tinges on the petal ends and a glossy green body it is G. horstii rather than bueneckeri. The original plants were introduced by Uebelmann's in Switzerland and bear the HU 79 number (HU = Horst-Uebelmann). It's surprising how the white flowered form has disappeared from general cultivation, probably because nurserymen think the pink flower sells better. But if you Google for horstii these days most shown are the pink flowered bueneckeri mislabelled as horstii. Horst's original collection of G. bueneckeri was HU 363 I think. How pink the flower is varies but still usually an all over pink colour with no white in it. Don't be disappointed you have horstii instead of bueneckeri since you will find it far easier to get a bueneckeri to go with it than the white flowered horstii these days.

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Horstii is obviously closely related to G. denudatum.

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... _denudatum" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Evidently the whiter flowered plants in this group have more shiny or glossy plant bodies, as you can see on those denudatum's at the bottom of the link above. Becoming more matt with the pink flowered species like bueneckeri.