Please help me identify this cactus!

Discussion in 'Cacti and Succulents' started by Ademission, May 8, 2021.

  1. Ademission

    Ademission Gardener

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    Hello all, do we have an expert on cacti that can help me identify the plant in the photo below?

    20210508_132120.jpg

    Any help would be appreciated.
     
  2. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    Not one I have grown so cant help.
    Cacti can be quite difficult plants to nail down exactly, often you can get a best guess, also they change quite a lot in appearance as they age.
    Looking at the top of the plant I have something similar, that one sided growing point where the new spines are coming from.:scratch: DSC01075.JPG
     
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    • Selleri

      Selleri Koala

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      Hi, my 12 points would go to an Echinocactus of some kind, based on the appearance of many, neatly arranged rows of the spine tufts and the yellowish, soft looking spines. (There are proper names for the rows and tufts but I'm too lazy to check :biggrin: )

      Unlike Pete's, mine is starting to grow pillar like and is not showing any tendency to form a clump. It's about a decade old and the size of a piccolo bottle of wine.

      It would be great to learn what it actually is. There was a member called Paul who was very good at all things Cactus related, not sure if he is still active.

      upload_2021-5-8_18-39-35.png

      upload_2021-5-8_18-40-37.png
       
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      • pete

        pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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        Mine is upright, I just took the picture looking down on it.:smile:

        DSC01086.JPG
         
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        • Ademission

          Ademission Gardener

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          Firstly I should thank pete and Selleri for their help. It is very much appreciated.

          Originally, I bought this cactus for my son for his bedroom window-sill back in 2000ish. He named it Jim (for some reason). He was only 10 years old. Eight years later the cactus was the same size but had a number of missing spines and bald patches. At this point he left to go to university and asked me if I wanted the cactus. I re-potted it and stood it in the kitchen. I occasionally watered it and fertilised it with a few drops of Baby Bio and suddenly it started to grow quite big (to about 18inches). The new growth looked good and even but it was very top heavy and unstable. At about this time, it started to develop a few new growths near to the base of the plant.
          To cut a long story short, and because of its wonky nature I decided to part company with it, but first I thought I would try to propagate the new growths and also decapitate it to form a smaller but better looking plant. I was very surprised how easy this was and now I have a number of new plants growing on the window-sills (see photo below). Your suggestion of Echinocactus looks to be correct and I'll do a bit of research to see if I can verify this.

          Cactus and pups.jpg

          Anyway, thanks again for your help. Stay safe.
           
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          • Michael Hewett

            Michael Hewett Total Gardener

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            @Ademission It's called Parodia leninghausii. It is native to south of Brazil. It produces yellow flowers but mine hasn't done so for a few years ...
             
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            • Selleri

              Selleri Koala

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              It is indeed- thank you @Michael Hewett :dbgrtmb:

              The youngsters look very good @Ademission , thanks for sharing the story of Jim!

              upload_2021-5-9_12-25-34.png
               
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              • Ademission

                Ademission Gardener

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                Michael Hewett,

                Thanks very much for your identification of the Parodia leninghausii. At long last I can get them all labelled up. I don't remember ever seeing flowers on the original plant but my wife does. It must have been many years ago.
                Many years ago when I was a student, I had a small collection of Mammillaria and a few other types. I may start to collect a few cacti when my new greenhouse arrives next month as I should have more room then for plants. At the moment I have too many plants and not enough window-sills. My small 8ft x 6ft greenhouse is full of tomatoes and chillies so I can't use it at the moment.

                Thank very much for your help, Stay safe.
                 
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