Oh yea! Blooms on an obesa are always fun. Congrats, Richard! Male cyathia, female, or both?

Is that all the bigger they get? I often notice mine getting ready to bloom, but it seems they fall off before they get big. Maybe mine is normal, and I just need to take a closer look the next time.

Yes, that is about as big as they get and yes, it is a female flower... oops, cyathium (Didn't want RoRo to correct me,LOL) I do have some E. obesa that will produce both male and female on the same plant. For the most part, as I know it, they are usually dioecious. Not all member of this family have tiny flowers.

This post was edited by bikerdoc5968 on Mon, Dec 2, 13 at 12:55

I like the way the plant grows!! Nice
kathi

Thanks for the replies.
I've been pretty busy and just got around to downloading a number of photos and was really surprised with the size of the bloom on such a large cactus.it is not a plant that I've paid much attention to until it started to swell. Howard how do you tell if its female its not wearing earrings

Richard

Here is even a better shot

I only have one photo of a male and the cyathea are too young to really tell

Funny, Richard. As Geoff has demonstrated very well, the female will have three very distinct style on the end of which are located bifurcated stigma, while the numerous male anthers are yellow fuzzy powdery looking. The attached picture is not E. obesa but the male flowers are very similar. In the picture, the early anthers are spherical in shape and become powdery (lower left). If you happen to have both male and female and you attempt to pollinate, you'll know you have been successful when the ovary swells as is demonstrated in my picture of the E. millotii flower. You will have to cover the developing pods with something to collect the seed as they will explode when ripe sending seed everywhere but where you want them!

This post was edited by bikerdoc5968 on Tue, Dec 3, 13 at 12:16