Cactus Flowers

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:36 pm

My primary hobby is to grow cacti and succulents and to photograph them. The contrast between their delicate flowers and the their spiney, fat, leafless bodies struck me as incongruous. Here are two of my favorites: an aptly named Parodia magnifica and a Rebutia kranziana. Hope you enjoy. Feel free to critique or comment.

Irwin

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 1:40 am

Superb! Especially #1 Parodia is my favorite.

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 7:55 pm

Thanks MacroLuv

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:42 am

You are welcome Irwin.

Spinescent is really magnificant on that Parodia magnifica. I like Astrophytum genus too. They have also beautiful silky yellow flowers.

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:37 am

Irwin, pity we can't get the bodies of Parodia (Notocactus) magnifica to colour up as blue as when they were first imported from the Horst-Uebelmann expedition. I see you have no better luck in the US. I remember the imports lovely powder blue bodies contrasted well with the golden spines. The plants always put on a good show of flowers every year though.

I am not intending to nit pick but it is Rebutia krainziana. David Hunt has now sunk this and many more under Rebutia minuscula in "The new Cactus Lexicon" published last year. I think many of us will still be retaining our old names though!

Astrophytums are nice Macroluv, probably A. capricorne and A. ornatum amongst the best,

Nice pictures Irwin! Makes you want April to come in the UK so we can start photographing cactus flowers again, although it's been so warm this winter that I still have an odd flower showing on Mammillaria spinossima, and I do not heat the greenhouse!

Dave Whiteley

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 6:53 am

Excellent photos Irwin. They do not get any better than these. Cactus flowers are amazing

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 7:42 am

Other than stepping on them or brushing up against them, cacti are something that I am not too familar with. I can't recall as ever having actually seen one in bloom personally. Beautiful photographs, maybe one day I may get to actually see one.

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 12:07 pm

Thank you Dave, Doug and Ken.

Dave, oops on the spelling. I guess I dropped the last part of the name.

I have never seen the blue form of the kranziana. Don't get me started on taxonomic changes.

I can't afford the new plant tags much less the time and effort to relabel everytime someone writes a book. The problem is taxonomy is a squishy classification system based on a number of fudge factors. What the reclassifiers tend to forget is that the primary purpose of the classification is to enable us to speak about a plant and know we are speaking about the same plant.

We are having a warm spell in Dallas this winter. Many of my mams are in bloom. I even have some Astophytum setting up thie flowerbuds, but I don't know if I will have any new astrophytums pictures for MacroLuv until spring because I don't remember them ever flowering in winter. But I have lots of plants setting up including turbinicarpus, kalanchoe and even another tillandsia.

Best regards.

Irwin

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sat Jan 06, 2007 1:05 pm

Irwin,

Not "blue krainziana's", blue bodied magnifica's! When magnifica was found it had a blue waxy bloom on the body that does not really seem to form in cultivation. Whether this was a defence against UV light I do not know. I have only seen a plant raised in in cultivation that had it once and its owner claimed he kept on a shelf high up near the ridge of his greenhouse.

DaveW

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:34 pm

Dave, sooy to be obtuse. Actually, my magnificas often have a blueish tint. I am not sure whether it is seasonal or not. I took the attached image on a bright day to show you the present color of one of my plants. . No color correction performed. It is the same plant shown flowering above.

Is this the color rou remembered?

Irwin

DaveW · Post by **DaveW** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:35 pm

Irwin,

Even bluer! They had a powder blue epidermis when the imports first came in. I gather it is in fact a surface covering or a waxy substance that does not seem to form to the same extent in cultivation. The body colour was rather like the Pilosocereus magnificus and P. fulvilanatus in this link:-

http://www.columnar-cacti.org/pilosocereus/page3.html

If you have not yet found it here is an interesting site with some pictures of Brazilian cacti in habitat on it:-

http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/s ... mages.html

All the best.

DaveW

cactuspic · Post by **cactuspic** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 7:17 am

Dave,

I had no idea they got so blue. Also, thank you for the site link for the pilosocereus. The photos in my books are weepingly weak making it very tough. Thanks again. Look for a pilosocereus post.

Irwin