Kykeion

I have to admit that I am one such American - sort of. I don't have the "Oh well, whatever attitude," but I am certain that I butcher the hell out of the pronunciation of most Latin and "Latinized" words. I blame the fact that we barely teach living foreign languages in public schools here (let alone "dead" languages), and that I also lack formal training in a discipline that regularly uses Latin vocabulary. I also rarely encounter the use of the scientific names of plants, animals or fungi outside of print (mostly through reading, but occasionally I'll use them in my own text). I often come up with internal pronunciations that sound great in my head and are easy for me to remember, but translating the internal dialog to actual speech I realize I am often way off.

While I agree with the bees not necessarily getting every grain, one grain of pollen generally equals one seed at pollination. So you might get a few seeds pollinated by "left over" pollen, but a full fruit of seed would be very unlikely. I'd say its more likely that you either have a self fertile cactus, or a neighbor with a compatible species blooming at the same time.

The pollen would likely be viable after that time, however the bees probably don't carry the pollen that long. I imagine they clean most of it off when they return to the hive.

Hmm interesting. It certainly appears to fit the "stress = freaky growth" observation with the base below the etiolation/scarring looking relatively normal.

I agree with Glaukus. The scarring in the first 5 pics is nothing to worry about. Damage could have been from any number of things, and may be from several different things (slug or grasshopper damage, mild bout of weeping rot, frost or sunburn...), but are healed up now and no longer a problem other than not looking real pretty. The damage in the last three pics could have been from spider mites, but again does not appear to be an active problem. Oh, and welcome to the group!

Interesting topic. I wasn't very convinced initially since the first photos xoma posted just look like a semi-monstrose bridge with greater penis tendencies than most. But seeing photos that show that the mother is a standard looking TBM I am more intrigued. I would guess that since it has reverted to a normal appearance that the reverts should be capable of flowering (assuming that TBMs truly can't/won't flower) since non-flowering trich crests are able to flower on reverted branches. Now what I am looking forward to is the crossing xoma's revert with djmattz0r's revert, both ways for good measure, and seeing if there is a high rate of freakishness in the offspring. Granted this may be difficult to quantify given that bridgesiis seem to be a bit more fluid with their freakyness (ie Zelly's observation that semi-monstrose individuals tend to go completely normal when planted in the ground; or that stress seems to trigger a bit of weirdness in some otherwise normal bridg specimens).

Unless of course they are farming mealies or aphids on the plants you are trying to grow...

Dang! I want your job!

Damn djmattz0r! nice looking plants. How big is that greenhouse? I have dreams of having such a growing space...

I did, since my other flowers are not nearly ready to bloom. If the bud on that TSM (T. shaferi monstrose) does not abort I may want to get something interesting from you to pollinate it with.

Hi there cactus family! I'm happy to be back after a brief hiatus. Back in February my greenhouse experienced a fatal freeze one night. I'm not sure of the exact cause, since I had not had any trouble all winter up to that point. My best guess is that it was a combination of an extremely cold night (not the lowest this winter though) and a lack of insulating snow (most of this seasons snow had melted at this point), and my little heater just couldn't compensate. I don't know the exact temperature that the greenhouse dropped to (my remote thermometer is not super accurate) but I estimate somewhere in the mid to low 20s F. There was a fair bit of damage and a few complete losses which broke my spirit a bit and resulted in my taking a break from active care and activity (daily visits with my collection, visiting forums, looking at cacuts pron, etc.). Visiting the greenhouse was just too depressing. About a month later I was able to work up the motivation to do a little triage in the GH and take inventory of damage and losses. Thankfully total losses were minimal and most are replaceable, but I did loose one of my favorite TBMs which is not likely replaceable, and a few other hybrids that are not common. I would have returned to the forums at this time too, but work got really busy and I couldn't really find the time. I did get to see some really cool cacti while I was out in the field for work though, and I'll share those pictures as soon as I can. There is good news from the GH though! Looks like I will soon be treated to my first Trichocereus flowers! I found buds on my T shaferi monstrose, T pachanoi, T/E hybrids. I'm really excited about these, and have my fingers crossed that they don't abort.

Opuntia Polyacantha

I just spent the months of March and April out in the field doing archaeological monitoring for a construction project (not really as exciting as it might sound). There was very little actual archaeology where most of the construction took place, but there was cactus! The most common cactus in much of the project area is the endangered Sclerocactus mesae-verdae (aka the Mesa Verde Cactus). Because this cactus is endangered there was also a biological monitor present to make sure construction did not disturb them. This meant that all know locations of the cacti were clearly marked which made it easy for me to locate and photograph them. Below are links to some facts sheets on the species and some of my better photos, enjoy! http://www.southwestlearning.org/download_product/1716/0 http://www.nndfw.org/nnhp/Plants/scmeve.pdf http://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/documents/r2es/mesa_verde_cactus_5-year_review_jan2011.pdf

And we have flowers!!!!!!

Buy more land/greenhouses/etc.

*

When I moved out of my last house I brought a E triglochidiatus with me that was there when I first moved in. Thankfully it survived being potted up and left out in the pot over winter. It hasn't bloomed yet this season, but it does have some buds. I'm not looking forward to replanting it though. Due to the rushed nature of the move (two weeks notice), it ended up being put in a huge pot with about 4 opuntias and an Escobaria vivipara.

Hey eYann, welcome to the group!!! I just wanted to add that leftover portion from Halcyon's advice can also be planted (if you haven't already tossed it). Simply leave the two exposed ends to callus along with the tip end. When every thing is callused you can either pot it up vertically in the same orientation as it was originally growing, or plant it on its side with ~1/2 of its thickness buried. Either way it will eventually root and throw you some pups. Result from vertical planting (I guess not a perfect example because there are no roots, but should give you the idea). Example of pup from a side planting (again no roots, but they would eventually grow out of the areoles on the bottom of this guy).

Indeed Bedofspines, most of the time the only cacti I come across are opuntias, so this was a bit of a treat. There were opuntias out there too, but there weren't blooming just yet. I missed most of the parviflorus blooms as well, but did get to see a few. The last day I was out there the Claret Cup/Hedgehog Cacti (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) began to bloom as well.

Also present in the area, but not as abundant is Sclerocactus parviflorus subspecies intermedius (Fishhook Cactus). This is a more common species spread over a much wider range, but still interesting.

I have never seen chimeral action (not the I have seen a lot) occur at an adjacent areole. I have only ever seen it occur at the graft union. Keep us updated on what happens though.

I'm not sure how common it is, but I have seen it in some of my roots too. I don't think there is really anything special about it, its not exactly something that can be shown off if you want the cutting to live.

I wonder if you could achieve similar results (decreased rot vulnerability) by planting only the lower portion of the tap root with the micro roots and leaving the upper portion exposed like a caudex? Clearly you end up with an entirely different looking specimen, but that is not an issue for everybody. I don't know how well it would work with an ariocarpus though. I could only find one example when I did a quick google image search.

Interesting little loph there Xoma. My though after the first pic was that maybe it just experienced some damage that made it go a bit wonky. But after seeing that second pic and how tiny it is relative to its siblings it definitely seems a bit weirder.

Thanks Mauve! I actually really love where I live. As beautiful as the snowy weather is (especially since we actually have snow this year!) I always begin to start missing the green and warm about this time of year though, even more so when browsing pics of places not currently frozen ;).