Mention the word cactus, and for many, the archetypical Saguaro silhouette springs to mind, or perhaps the widespread Opuntia ficusindica. However, not all cacti are telegraph-pole high, or so prolific they are used as cattle fodder. There are a large number of species that will live for many years, if not their entire life, in a coffee mug-sized pot. For those with limited space, perhaps growing a collection on a sunny windowsill, these miniature species of cacti allow a wide variety of forms to be grown, without the need for vast amounts of space. A handful of choice species are presented here, together with comments for their successful cultivation and propagation.
Echinocereus knippelianus ssp. kruegeri
Many years ago, before Echinocereus knippelianus var. kruegeri was described, I got a plant or two, back in the mid-1970s. This was when I would visit the only cactus nursery I knew of at the time. I was there at a later date and heard the owner telling someone else that the Echinocereus knippelianus sp. nov had been named. The plant is still with me, though it has seen many hard times in its life. I think one of the worst, besides attacks of mealy bugs at times, is the years of suffering alkaline water. The plant (Fig. 1) is now a 14-stemmed clump just over 20 cm in diameter. I have, now and then, removed a bad stem or two, so it would have been maybe 18–20-stemmed otherwise. The stems are up to 6 cm in diameter, the tallest are 8 cm tall. It has “grunge” at the bottom of the stems, probably from the alkaline water and limestone top-dressing it has had to endure. It is not the prettiest of plants, but the new green growth has come since I started using acidified water.
I kept 18 seedlings, now about 10–12 years old, though only 4 of them are trying to clump (Fig. 2). The tallest of these plants is 4.5 cm tall and the largest in diameter is 6 cm. It seems that ssp. kruegeri is a bit taller growing than the species, by at least 2 cm. The original description says that the stems are up to 10 cm tall and 6 cm in diameter. I have one plant with two stems 8 and 10 cm tall, and about 5.5 cm in diameter. If you look closely at Fig. 3, you will see that all the buds arise from very close to the growing point; there are none coming from on the shoulder or flank. You will never see buds forming in the growing point in Echinocereus knippelianus ssp. knippelianus. It will not happen. If you do see a ssp. knippelianus with buds coming from the growing point, it is either incorrectly named, or some lumper (or victim of the lumpers) has crossed the two subspecies, though I have not yet seen any hybrids. The location from which the buds arise is the main difference between the two. I have never seen ssp. knippelianus produce flowers from the growing point, nor have I seen the ssp. kruegeri flower from the side! If the two ssp. are indeed the same thing, then they would grow flowers from anywhere, be it from the sides, at the bottom, at soil level or deep in the growing point. This does not happen because they are two entirely different plants.
Fig. 2 shows a plant with a pink flower. The description says that for ssp. kruegeri, the flower color is white to purplish-pink with a darker mid-stripe (as for the species) except that the flowers open to 5 cm in diameter. Notice that the flower in Fig. 2, when first opening, is a beautiful pink, but as the plant pumps fluid into the petals for them to expand, they lose the original color (Fig. 4). Fig. 5 shows a cluster of flowers opening together. The one in the center of the cluster is darker pink because it has not opened as widely as the rest yet. It too will lose the color in the petals as it gets larger. For me, every plant of ssp. kruegeri that I've had has flowers that fade like this, over the 37 years I have grown this plant.
Echinomastus mariposensis SB 1391
For many years, it has been said that Echinomastus mariposensis comes from only one small area, by the Mariposa mine in Brewster County, Texas. However, Echinomastus mariposensis SB 1391, which I have been growing for about 30 years, happens to come from Encantada, Coahuila, Mexico. Plants apparently come from a large area and it is even reported to grow in a couple of locations in the state of Chihuahua. Texas, then, is really on the northern edge of its range, which extends for several hundred miles down into Mexico. It is fortunate to be more widespread than once believed, since the Texas locale is hit every so often by plant thieves want to make a few fast dollars on the illegal market.
There is really no need to dig up plants from habitat; Fig. 6 shows that when the plant blooms it does not fool around, and with two clones you can get a lot of seed, as I do every year. The seed pods may not be very large but contain 20–50 or more seeds each. Plants can produce 10–25 pods, and when you multiply that by half a dozen plants, the need to collect plants from habitat has disappeared.
My largest plants are the same size, 11 cm tall and 8 cm in diameter (Fig. 7). Behind the right hand head, the main stem has an area where it did not grow well while receiving alkaline water. It came very close to giving in and dying. Acidic water came just in time, but also caused another issue that I would not have expected. This time it came from my limestone top-dressing. In habitat, the plants may grow on limestone, but Mother Nature takes care of her plants, providing them with acidic rain water, as well as a very large soil volume to grow in. When you have plants in (relatively) tiny pots with limestone in the soil or as top-dressing, it can make the pH soil alkaline fairly quickly. When I started giving acidified water, the limestone dissolved, turning the soil alkaline. For a while I could not figure what was going on until, when changing top-dressing, I noted that the top 1–2 cm of the soil was strangely colored, and the top-dressing was glued together. Calcium was dissolving, and then acting like cement; I had to break up the top-dressing with a metal rod to get it out of the pot. As a test, I did nothing but change the top-dressing on a couple of dozen plants. Within a week of watering, they started growing well again. I have two kinds of limestone top-dressing; one is dark-colored and the other is light blue-grey to almost white. The latter is quite soft and acidic water seems to dissolve it quite rapidly, making a powder which slowly gets washed down into the soil. I have removed up to an inch of potting medium to get rid of this white powdery residue, which also helps the plants as it gets rid of a lot of alkaline soil immediately. I have then been giving the plants a watering with acidified water. For those plants that have the hard limestone top-dressing, all I have to do is change the top dressing and water.
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A multi-headed plant of E. mariposensis. Note the discolored section of stem about half way up the stem at the back.
Many years ago, I remember reading an article about a soil mix that a person in England suggested using. To a gallon of soil, they added a table spoon of lime, the reason being that the plants grew on limestone and so needed the lime. They then said that the soil needed to be changed several times a growing season. What they were seeing, without knowing it, is that after several waterings the lime in the soil turned the soil alkaline and the plants stopped growing. By changing the soil several times a season that they could get the plants growing again. I am not sure if they ever discovered it was the lime in the soil that caused the problems, but after getting the limestone top dressing off my pots, E. mariposensis growth started showing up in six to ten days. I thought nothing would happen until spring but the plants are so happy that with the warm days and the absence of lime, they started growing. Fig. 8 shows a recently developed offset, a sign that plant really likes the limestone being gone. Many people were very concerned about giving Ariocarpus acidic water. They would write and say that the plants grow only in limestone rock and soil. It is the same with Echinomastus and many other plants. The important thing is that while they are growing in habitat, they get acidic rain water. They will use this water and grow, as long as it is acidic but when it is neutralized by bicarbonates in the soil, the plants shut down again.
The description of Echinomastus mariposensis in part says: body is solitary, spherical to elongated, to 9 cm high, 6 cm in diameter. Roots are stalk-like and fibrous. Radial spines number 25 to 35, the shortest to 4 mm long; Central spines 4(−6), 0.5 to 1.5 cm long, the upper ones directed toward the apex, the lowest one porrect to bending somewhat downward, stiffer that the radial spines: all spines are white with a small brown tip. Flowers 2.5 cm long and 2 cm in diameter, pink.
Figure 9 shows the top of a plant and also the spines. I cannot find a dark tip on any of the radial spines, but it may be that the plants from Brewster County Texas have a different spine color than those from farther south. The centrals in the photo are two toned in color. The upper side is a lavender-grey color and the underside starts out horn-colored at the base and darkens along the length until the underside is almost black at the tip. The color at the tip on most of the central spines is dark, though not black. The top of the plant is white-looking, with some horn color. The white comes from the white of wool on the areoles, which in time darkens and, along with the horn color, gives an overall yellowish appearance. The central spines, from 3–6 at the top of this head, against the white wool, look almost blue in color. Some are directed upward with a graceful curve, others downward-pointing, are more porrect with only a slight curve. All centrals are much heavier than the radial spines, which are mostly directed sideways or downwards, also gracefully curved. The radial spines range from off-white to aged ivory in color.
Echinomastus mariposensis in habitat are single headed plants. In cultivation, where they get more lavish growing conditions, the plants will in time offset — though my plants have taken up to fifteen years before they decide do that. In habitat the plants will be dormant after setting seed until the rains come, which can be months. They then take on water and start to grow. This period of growth can last up until it gets too cold, or the soil becomes alkaline again. During the later stages, the plants are preparing themselves for the spring bloom. Then they sit dormant through winter, until the days get longer and the weather warms up. The buds start to grow out of the wool of the apex, with the flowers opening in mid- to late spring. Temperatures are not too hot and so flowers last for about a week each. Most of the buds will open so many flowers can be open simultaneously and therefore have a very good chance of getting pollinated. However, they cannot open widely (only 1.5–2 cm) since they are crowded against each other. In Fig. 1 it can be seen that the style and stigma are emerald green. It is also easy to see the pink glow of the petals and the darker mid-stripe. For those with a good sense of smell the flowers have a nice odor to them.
I grow the plants an open, fast-draining mineral soil. For the most part, I keep them dry over the winter, with the last watering being light one, around the beginning of November. When temperatures reach the low- to mid-60° F and I see the plants growing, I give them a little drink. In areas with high humidity, I would not water at all in the winter, and in the spring allow the buds to grow to a fair size before watering. For me Echinomastus mariposensis is the easiest of the Echinomastus to grow.
Mammillaria albiflora
For many years Mammillaria albiflora was listed as a variety of M. herrerae, though not everyone accepted that, and kept the name M. albiflora on their labels. Charles Glass expressed the idea that it was not a variety of M. herrerae. Backeberg in his Cactus Lexicon listed the plant as M. albiflora as did others in their books. Hunt, in A Review of Mammillaria Names, dismissed the plant as only a phase of M. herrerae. There is quite a lot of confusion about the flowers in the literature: Backeberg described them as 3.5 cm in diameter, but gave no length, Anderson, in The Cactus Family, gave 35 mm long, 25 mm in diameter, Hunt, in The New Cactus Lexicon, gives a figure of 3.5 cm, but no indication as to what measurement this refers to.
Figure 10 shows a plant in flower; the largest was 6 cm in diameter (Fig. 11). It is my personal opinion that we need books that are updated with more accurate information on the flower size in cultivation. As I have stated before, I now know that the flowers may open the first day at 3.5 cm but each day they open they are larger. In order for the plant to open the flowers, the plant pumps more fluid into the flower so the petals will open. Since that fluid has to go somewhere, the petals grow longer and possibly even a wider, though I have not measured the petal width. In the case of Pterocactus megliolii, some flowers only grow a little larger, and some go from 3 cm the first day to 8 cm the last full day they open. Similarly, I have measured Thelocactus heterochromus flowers, and the first day they open they can be as small as 8 cm, reaching 14 cm in diameter before they end.
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A flowering Mammillaria albiflora, showing the faint pink tinge to the petals and more prominent mid-stripe on the outer ones.
11
With a tape measure for scale, the largest flower measures 6 cm across. The tape is held slightly above the level of the flower, making it look slightly less than 6 cm.
Figure 12 shows the flower in all its glory. As well as the flush of pink as mentioned in Pilbeam's book, the upper half of the filaments are a wonderful color of pink. Once the flower has closed the first day, pollen gets on the petals, giving the center of the flower a golden haze. Figure 13 shows the plant body, which has a seedling growing at the base, which prompted me to go looking for the seed pods. I leave the dead flower remains and so I took one of those off — no seed pod, but there was a strange looking crack between the areoles and I went digging, Inside the body was a pocket of seed about 5/16 deep and 3/8 in diameter, containing maybe 40 seed in the seed pod. Contrary to the information Pilbeam gives, it was entirely inside the plant. I found another, took almost the same number of seed from that spot also.
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A close-up of the flower, showing the gradation of color in the filaments, and the pollen deposited on the petals when the flower closes.
13
Plant of Mammillaria albiflora, with a seedling visible lower right. Half an inch above the top of the seedling is where a fruit was found, inside the body of the plant.
Mammillaria albiflora needs a very open fast draining soil, and do not be over-anxious to water early in the spring. Limestone in the soil or a top-dressing of a basic rock would be bad also. The plant needs to have acidic water every watering; it hates alkaline water. Keep the plant dry over the winter, when the plant can take a light frost, but do not allow temperatures to fall below about 27°F. Covered in white spines, the plant can take all the sunshine you want to give it, though make sure you acclimate it gradually, for it can still get burned even though it is covered in white spines. To maintain those wonderful, dense white spines, all the light you can give it is a must.
Pelecyphora aselliformis
Pelecyphora: from Gr. pelekys, a hatchet or axe, and Gr. –phoros, carrying.
aselliformis: from Gr. asella, literally little donkey, and –formis shaped like, alluding to the areoles which are reminiscent of woodlice1.
Pelecyphora aselliformis is a highly sought-after plant, so far as most cactus collectors are concerned. There just does not seem to be enough to satisfy demand. I have seen golf ball sized plants going for $35 or more.
Pelecyphora is Greek for ‘hatchet bearing’ as mentioned above, which refers to the shape of the tubercle, shown in Fig. 14. From the top, it has a strange appearance, somewhat like a double-headed hatchet. Most have a slight S-curve to the tubercle, and also narrower, rounded ends. The tubercles are raised, to 5 mm tall, flattened on top and between 5–12 mm long. Down the middle of each tubercle is a very thin groove with a narrow space either side of it, separating it from the area where the spines begin. If you look at several of the spine clusters in Fig. 14b, you can see that they curve over the edge of the tubercle. It hard to tell if the spines are translucent or not, since they seem to have a waxy coating. Quite near the tip, the color changes to a frosted white, and appear to be semi-translucent.
Figure 15 shows a plant I grew from seed about 25 years ago. It had stayed as a single head until about three years ago when I started using acidified water. All the offsets are the same age, having grown quite well for the last 3 years. Figure 16 shows a two-headed seedling about 10 years younger than Fig. 5. I almost lost it during the alkaline water years, which have left their mark on the plant in the form of the brown, dead and deformed tubercles and spine clusters. It is not supposed to have tubercles sideways, as can be seen on the large head on the right. When acidic water turned its dying around, the heads started growing properly again. It took a while to overcome the ill-effects of the alkaline water, but when it did, it also started offsetting. There are 9 on this plant, and if it is not careful, it will make a show-plant out of itself yet.
15
A 25 year-old plant of Pelecyphora aselliformis with 11 offsets, the largest being 4 cm in diameter.
16
Poor growth, evidenced by brown and misshapen tubercles and resulting from the use of alkaline water, can be seen lower on the body of this 15 year-old plant.
The largest plant I have, purchased about 27 years ago as a single-headed seedling for $3 or $3.50 (when ‘regular’ plants were less than half that price and more than three times the size!) is shown in Fig. 17. The spination won me over, despite economic considerations, and it now has 18 heads.
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A large plant of Pelecyphora aselliformis, 15.5 cm in diameter. The two oldest offsets on the right are being forced away from the original head by offsets developing between them.
The flowers are dark pink to magenta in color, up to 2 cm in diameter (Fig. 18), and appear from late spring to mid fall. I have had so many flowers open on one head that it was difficult to pollinate them. If the temperature is not too hot, they will last several days. Fig. 19 shows an unusual, crested or double flower. I usually clean flower remains off the plant for showing, but if one doesn't want to come off, I leave it. In Ariocarpus et cetera, Pilbeam writes:
19
This anomalous flower has two styles and two stigmas. Both stigmas are crested, though it is less obvious on the one on the left.
“Fruit and seed were not described and we have never seen fruit produced on this species in cultivation, and suspect that it remains below the wool between the tubercles. Seed available commercially is black.”
This seems correct. The fruit is inside the body of the plant, so you will never see a fruit, such as in e.g. Epithelantha micromeris. Figure 20 shows several seeds that are slowly being pushed out of the plant. Many years ago, when I first started pollinating my plants and I went looking for the seed pods, there was none per se, but when I parted the wool where the flower remains were, there was a shallow, cone-shaped cap; under that were seeds. The seeds develop inside the body, so are rather lumpy, like dough balls stacked and pushed together, so as to not take up so much room. They are charcoal-grey and quite rough, with small rills covering visible. If you have small pointed tweezers it is fairly easy to remove them, otherwise they will, in time, squeeze out and fall or be washed down to the soil. I get from 8 to 14 seed per fruit, but remember it is slow work and can take a while just to empty one pod. I have discovered that I get better seedling growth if they are allowed to grow in the top-dressing with the parent plants. Once they are the diameter of a pencil, they can be potted in their own pot and grow quite well.
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Seeds appearing on the surface of the plant, being liberated as the older parts of the plant body compress.
I grow my plants in a fast-draining, open soil. The plants seem to do just as well in a high mineral- as in a high humus soil. To keep the plants from becoming elongated, give lots of light, though in the heat of the afternoon they appreciate bit of shade. The plants have taken temperatures down to 15°F without showing any damage, but if you live where there is high humidity, it would be best to keep the plant above freezing.
Pelecyphora aselliformis is said to be a slow growing plant. I have discovered that, like a lot of other plants that are deemed hard to grow and that are slower than the 23 year itch, are not that way. When using alkaline water the plants are very slow. In habitat the plants grow in or on limestone, and they grow only in the rainy season when they receive acidic rainwater. Once the rains stop, the plants go dormant and do not grow again till the next rainy season. In cultivation, the plants grow very slowly, if at all, for most people use alkaline water without knowing the plants hate it. Of the 17 offsets on the plant in Fig. 17, all but the two large ones are three years old or younger. Since starting with acidified water, the plant has produced offsets every year. In 4 years it has gone from a 3-headed plant to the 18 heads it has today. If you use tap water and get it from a water company, it is most likely alkaline. Many wells are also produce alkaline water. The water from my well has a pH of 7.8, in contrast with rainwater which is usually between pH 5.0 and pH 5.4. Since we have also started giving small doses of ammonium sulfate with every watering in the growing season, the plants have been healthier, bloom more and also grow better than ever. Remember, every time it rains in habitat, the plants get acidic water and nitrogen.
Sulcorebutia bicolor KK 1797
In 1985 John Pilbeam published his first Sulcorebutia book, Sulcorebutia and Weingartia. A Collector's Guide. On p. 39 are two photos of Sulcorebutia bicolor KK 1797 with the comment ‘Another Karel Knize catalogue name.’ that was as yet not described, but seemed to be nearest to Sulcorebutia steinbachii, something of a catch-all for plant of the genus that people don't quite know where to place. I cannot find further reference to it in any books that I have — even the collection number KK 1797 seems to have been more or less wiped off the face of the earth. There are plants of S. krugeri v. hoffmannii which has flowers quite like the flowers of S. bicolor, but the spine characteristics are quite different.
In the clumps shown in Fig. 21, the stems are up to 3 cm tall and the same in diameter. The plants clump readily and can grow to 12 cm in diameter in about five or six years. The spines are translucent pinkish-brown, darker toward the base of the spine. I have never seen any central spines on the plants. The areole is covered in cream colored felt. The flowers (Fig. 22) are anywhere from 2.5 cm to 4 cm in diameter, depending on how many are open at one time — the fewer the larger. The flowers are either yellow with a red border, or yellow with red outer petals. However you want to say it, the flowers are beautiful! They last for several days, except when it is really hot, then half a day may be all. The plants seem to like more humus in the soil than a most other cacti. Sulcorebutia are more or less high elevation plants, and seem not like too much sun or heat. If you live where the high temperature very seldom gets above 85°F, then you will be able to grow the plants better than those who live where the summers are warmer, though I would still provide dappled shade in the afternoon.
Turbinicarpus panarottoi RH 151
Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Miss Panarottoi for your viewing pleasure? Oops! Hold on a minute, that name should be Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus var. panarottoi, as given by Riha in 1996. Oh, but wait that name has been declared invalid. That should be Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus ssp. panarottoi as changed by J. Luthy in 1999. Hang on, that name has also been declared invalid too. Here is what the Italian Turbinicarpus book says about the name problems.
“Nomenclatural Note The taxon, as most of the members of the genus, has identity problems. Zachar (1996) proposed the invalid combination Turbinicarpus klinkerianus var. rubriflorus comb inval. After the publication of CCCLII, Luthy (1999) proposed a new combination: Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus ssp. panarottoi. Mosco (1999) reckoned that the name given by Riha was not valid and proposed the name Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus ssp. andersonii in honor of Edward F. Anderson, who was the first to collect the taxon, but confused it with T. klinkerianus Backeberg & H.J. Jacobsen (Anderson, 1986) in his revision of the genus Neolloydia, and mentioned it as T. schmiedickeanus var. klinkerianus (Backeberg & H. J. Jacobsen) Glass & Foster in the book Threatened Cacti of Mexico (Anderson et al. 1994).”
It seems like every one got the name wrong, even Anderson, who they want to name it after. As I got the plant under the name of Turbinicarpus panarottoi I am leaving it with that name. I personally do not think that just about every Turbinicarpus there is is a variety or subspecies of T. schmiedickeanus!
So again, Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present Miss Panarottoi for your viewing pleasure? I am not good with colors so I asked my wife what color the flowers are. She said dark purple, slowly fading to a rich lavender (Fig. 23). I told her that to me it looked like it was dark violet that did not fade an awful lot. The flowers are up to 2.5 cm in diameter, and from the looks of the plants, it looks like most of the flowers opened all at the same time (Fig. 24). A couple offsets reserved a bud for another day.
Looking at the plant with its single up pointing spine, it does look a lot like T. klinkerianus, though my T. klinkerianus has at least 2 spines per areole. The description says that they can have from 5 to 8 radial spines, but as the plant matures only 1 to 2 central spines are produced. If you look closely at the offsets at the bottom left of Fig. 25, you can see that there are several small radial spines beside the central that is growing. These also soon fall off. The tubercles are more or less pyramid-shaped, the areole is oval and when young is covered in white wool. This soon falls out and leaves short wool or only felt, with the spines. The spines grow to 1 cm long and they twist and curl a bit. They are oval in cross section; the outer layer has fine surface cracks, allowing a darker ash-color to show through the lighter outer layer.
Anyone can lose a plant now and then, but when a whole collection slowly goes downhill then you have to know that something is really wrong. When I got the alkaline water situation straightened out, soon after the plants started showing symptoms of alkaline poisoning again. As already mentioned, the kind of top-dressing used can cause problems when combined with acidic water. If you compare Fig. 26, where the plant has a limestone top-dressing, with Fig. 27, where I changed it, you will see a big difference. The tubercles on the plants at the time the picture in Fig. 26 was taken were more like scales on a fish than pyramid-shaped. I thought at the time that it was because the plant was dormant, but this was not the case. The plants were shrinking down more and more, due to the alkalinity of the soil. What I did was to simply dump the limestone top-dressing off about fifty plants and then water them with acidified water. Within a few days they were showing signs of getting healthy again. I watched them for about two weeks and then decided to change the top-dressing on a lot more plants. All that have received a different kind of top-dressing have shown a marked improvement in their health. For some of the plants, that have had limestone top-dressing the longest, I changed the soil as well.
