Is this corking???

[amo4b]

Hi! I have had this beauty for about 6 months. It was really nice and healthy but about 3 months ago it started to develop these brown and hard patches. I researched corking but this is a bit unusual as it doesn't go from the bottom up...or at least not clearly. The flower has also lost a bit of color, it was bright red and now it's orange/yellow. It's in direct exposure and the first 3 months the sun was pretty strong. I've only watered sparsely every other week.
Thanks!

[sadhbh-rua]

hi there, it looks like your plant possibly has been sunburned from either too much or too strong/intense sun exposure that it wasnt acclimatized to, and the hard patches are scar tissue. also, the top part isnt actually a flower:) what you have is two different species of cactus grafted together, the top one lacking the green pigment chlorophyll so its unable to make its own food from the sun, and survives almost parasitically on the bottom cactus.

[iann]

Corking all the way to the top is generally a bad thing This is going to struggle now because there is little green left on the stock and no way for it to grow any more. You might consider grafting onto a new stock.

The top may also have scorched. They do come in dayglow yellow, but if it was bright red before, then it shouldn't change to yellow.

[amo4b]

Thanks for the responses....I would tend to think it got sunburned...I regret having put it in direct exposure, never thought a cactus would be sensitive to that. Now I know!
About the "flower" I know it's another cactus, but it's easy to forget