Look what I got !

18 years ago

Hi,

in the past I have been reading of your strokes of luck, friends who give away their plants, good bargains in nursery sales, etc... And I thought "this never happens to me... me unlucky boy...".

Well, things have changed! I'm going to tell you a story: there was a cactus fanatic who had about 300.000(!) plants (including seedlings) in 3 GHs, who decided to move back to his native region. This man filled 3 containers with his plants (and spent about 15.000E for the transportation...).

He left few plants to a close friend... And this is the point where I jump in the story: a friend of this friend is a collegue of mine... you can imagine the rest, I got some of the plants!

Here they are:

Echinomastus macdowelli:

Gymnocalycium bruchii (screaming for repotting...):

Acanthocalycium thionanthum v. copiapoides:

Thelocactus leucanthus:

Gymno valnicekianum P83

Gymno sp. nova P106. Don't know how it is labelled this way. From the field number it should be a G. stuckertii :

Lobivia calochrysea P61:

Mammillaria lenta:

Mammillaria johnstonii v. sancarlensis:

Gymno schatzlianum:

Astrophytum myriostigma (I already had this species, but it is so beautiful...)

And a personal gift from this friend of friend, Mammillaria yaquensis:

I got all for 30E, was it a good bargain?

All plants are big and look very compact and healthy... "natural", in one word.

Is there any special info on their care I should know?

Alessandro

Comments (17)

deefar
18 years ago
What a stroke of luck! Those are beauties.

Dawn
billinsc
18 years ago
I share your enthuthiasm Allesandro! I think you got a great deal! Good things do indeed come to those who wait!! :-)
Bill in SC
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cactusdan19
18 years ago
Great job Alessandro,
I don't get in on many of these either. Love the markings on that A. myriostigma. I have Thelocactus McDowelii, do you know which is correct? That one looks great.
Dan
cactuspolecat
18 years ago
Dan, Echinomastus macdowelii has been transferred ino the Genus Thelocactus, some other species are now included in Sclerocactus while a few sp. remain in Echinomastus.
That's a nice group of plants there alessandro. I particularly like the Mamm. yaquensis, It reminds me of one that I once bought... it was just a tiny plant, and had only been potted for a day or so... when I went into the green house to check my new plants before leaving for work, and must have leaned to close to it. It took one of my workmates to point out that I had something attached to my sleeve... and here's this little yaquensis with its stout little hooked spines firmly attached to me... there were lots of jokes after that about taking "pets" to work.

Cheers, CP
alealdo
Original Author
18 years ago
LOL for your story, CP! Good to know that at every latitude we cactus lovers become the targets of such jokes! ;)
In fact, the man who gave me the yaquensis said to handle it with much care...
Thanks all for the nice comments, now I have the hard task to maintain those plans as beautiful as they are now.

Happy thanksgiving day!

Alessandro
Pieter
18 years ago
And keep the birds away from this yaquensis. They wil get catched by this cactus and die in it. I have a group of this M. yaquensis with a dried bird in it. Impossible to remove it...

Pieter
greenlarry
18 years ago
Great collection and good story too!

Gymno sp. nova P106. Don't know how it is labelled this way. From the field number it should be a G. stuckertii

That looks like my no name Gymno that was incorrectly labelled as triacanthum.

{{gwi:484318}}

{{gwi:484319}}
alealdo
Original Author
18 years ago
Pieter, the sadistic side of me is asking "please post a pic"! It will take some yrs for this little plant to be able to catch birds (no hummingbirds around here!).

GL, to be honest the spination of your plant looks different from mine (much stronger). To be even more honest, I haven't found on google two pics of a G. stuckertii that match with each other and, of course, none matches with one of ours... :)

Alessandro
cactus_kate
18 years ago
Okay, I am about to cry because I can't see the pretty new plants and everyone else could. Is there something wrong with the photo server this morning that won't let me see them? Help!!

Kate
vvdo
18 years ago
I can't see how fortunate you are. non posso vedere le photographie.
shrubs_n_bulbs
18 years ago
I believe that P106 was collected as a new species, or at least an unidentified one, and subsequently assigned to Gymnocalycium stuckertii by Roberto Kiesling. There is considerable doubt about whether that is the correct identification. It is probably best not to use a P106 plant as a guide to the species, although it and its offspring have become widespread in cultivation and are now often just tagged as G. stuckertii.

Anyway, good haul!
cactus_kate
18 years ago
Okay, Now I see them. Don't know what was wrong before. They're a very nice bunch! congratulations!

Kate
Ohio_Green_Thumb
18 years ago
You got some very nice plants Alessandro! Your Mammillaria yaquensis looks very similar to a cutting I rooted from one of my mother's cacti this summer. I'm wondering if it's the same thing.

Also, I looked this one up and I noticed that it's called Mammillaria thornberi ssp yaquensis on some sites. Is that the old name?

Possibly Mammillaria yaquensis:

{{gwi:484320}}

{{gwi:484321}}

Amy
shrubs_n_bulbs
18 years ago
That's pretty tiny. It would be useful to check any ID against the parent which would have proper adult features.

Look at M. wilcoxii, or maybe a different form of M. wrightii.

It is also similar to a juvenile M. zeilmanniana, which would develop extra central spines as it matured.
alealdo
Original Author
18 years ago
SnB, thanks for the explanation. It sounds credible and explains the tag "sp. nova" (=new species).
Amy, in these cases I refer to Desert Tropicals: for them the two names are the same plant (http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Cactaceae/Mammillaria_yaquensis.html)
VvDO, good try, just change your "ph" to "f" and that's perfect :)

It's seems that the photo server I use wasn't in a good shape yesterday...

Alessandro
vvdo
18 years ago
Adesso, posso vedere tutto... si e un sbaglio che faccio sempre. Lei e molto forutunata!
meloman
18 years ago
All of them looks very beautiful and healthy. great find!

Pijaya