Gymnocalycium mihanovichii v rysanekianum

[WayneByerly]

What a fantastic run of bad luck. First, the temperatures here went down to 4F last nite and I had water pipes burst in my in my pump housing. My water source is a well (265ft deep) with an electric pump.

It got SO cold that I had to put a second heater in my little tiny primitive greenhouse. Once we discovered that the reason my water had quit running was frozen burst pipes, I had to take the main heater from the greenhouse and put it in the pump housing to keep it thawed so that repairs can be accomplished tomorrow.

And the secondary heater in the greenhouse was not enough to keep tempeatures above 40F I had to bring everything inside. Not funny. I'm 65 years old and disabled from a motorcycle accident about 22 years ago. Just standing up and walking is so painful that ... well, i'm not writing about that. I'm just saying that some of them were heavy and it was quite difficult.

So as long as I've got them inside I decide I'll get a little head start on spring by replacing all the plant markers in the pots. And one of the cacti that I do this for is one of the oldest (and my absolute favorite of all my plants) cacti that I own. I have an ID for it ... Gymnocalycium mihanovichii v rysanekianum. But i've gotten some egregiously wrong ID's before, and if nothing else, attempting to verify its ID here will give me a chance to show it off. The mix of red (that it gets from being in the sun) and green make it the most beautiful cactus in the world in my opinion. It doesn't hurt any that it produces some of the most beautiful pictures you've ever seen. As a matter of fact, my avatar here is one of its flowers.

OK ... lets show the pictures.

The first four pictures are pictures of the cacti from the four cardinal positions. Just to show you all sides and all of its colors. The cactus, like all plants that depend on photosynthesis to live, is green. But put this cactus in the sun and the edges of the ribs start to turn red and that spreads until the cactus is almost completely red. But not quite. And it is that red/green combination of colors that make this cactus, to my eye, the most beautiful cactus that there is! And the cactus is SO hard. It almost feels like it was made of ceramic.

1.jpg (111.98 KiB) Viewed 999 times

Another side with a minor color change. Pictures 2 and 3 are amost completely red.

2.jpg (103.17 KiB) Viewed 999 times

3.jpg (100.86 KiB) Viewed 999 times

This 4th picture is it's greenest side. Is not this coloration magnificent? Is it not one of the most beautiful living things that you have ever seen? No wonder I am SO fascinated by xeric plants.

4.jpg (96.06 KiB) Viewed 999 times

The ribs are SO red as to be almost translucent. Like they are glowing from withing with the leftover fires of creation!

5.jpg (83.45 KiB) Viewed 999 times

And, as you can see here, the cactus is already producing more flowers ... two of them ... two of the most beautiful flowers that can be found anywhere.

6.jpg (92.93 KiB) Viewed 999 times

So ... is this a Gymnocalycium mihanovichii v rysanekianum? Or have I been mislead yet once again. Let me know which cactus flowers YOU think are the most beautiful.

[stefan m.]

Ive looked it up. Seems that variant has "identity issues" and has diverse traits. The site is japanese, so if you figure out what it says, congrats
http://tytsks.blog39.fc2.com/blog-entry-186.html
llifle states that they are all subtypes of gymno. mihanovichii friedrichii http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... riedrichii

[WayneByerly]

Stefan

I'm using Windows 8.1 and so it translated that page right away. Let me know if you would like to read it and I will copy the text and post it.

But here's the deal ... the ONLY thing that makes me even BEGIN to think that MAYBE i MIGHT have a wrong id is pictures like this ...

GYMNO.jpg (38.21 KiB) Viewed 988 times

... MINE doesn't have the 'horizontal' lines in its body. I can understand that different variants can have different colored flowers and so the fact that I DO find examples of the plant with different colored flowers doesn't bother me ... it's this lack of horizontal ... mmm ... ridges along the ribs.

[stefan m.]

Can i guess that your plant had ridges at some point? Because of what i could tell, it somehow lost them over time.
And im going to assume its the same plant - https://cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33238

[phil_SK]

Gymnocalycium mihanovichii v rysanekianum isn't a name that has ever been validly published, so there's no such thing as a 'real' one. There are two similar gymnos, G. mihanovichii and G. stenopleurum (usually encountered under another invalidly published name, G. friedrichii). Plants, like yours, with a rough epidermis and pink or white flowers are G. stenopleurum (c.f. smooth, greenish for G. mihanovichii). There's a good selection of photos on http://www.carciton.cz/kaktusy/clanky11.htm under mihanovichii, stenopleurum and friedrichii (where var. ryšánekianum is mentioned in passing). The author of these pages doesn't accept that 'friedrichii' and G. stenopleurum are the same thing, hence the three separate entries.

[DaveW]

As Phil says, catalogue names are no longer considered valid publication since they appear and disappear just as frequently. Graham Charles in his Gymnocalycium Book says for G. stenopleurum:-

"G. mihanovichii var. friedrichii is not accepted as a synonym of G. stenopleurum by all students of the genus, although the stated differences are slight and their habitats are close. Both have a rough epidermis which separates them from G. mihanovichii. Schadlich, who does not accept that they are synonyms, gives us more information about plants he saw at the type locality. He reports that the plants there can grow to 300mm tall, the flower varies from white to pink and the ripe fruits are actually red. Bercht says that G. stenopleurum usually grows on rocks whereas G. friedrichii prefers sand."

Graham Charles does show a photo of a G. stenoplurum like yours Wayne (Schadlich 249, from the Cerro Leon) which does not have the horizontal accordion like ridges, although all his other illustrations have them but they are not mentioned in Ritter's original description.

He translates Ritter's original description for G. stenopleuram which says:-

"The topmost anthers curving inwards, with the anthers over the stigma. anthers small blackish, pollen pale yellow."

This agrees with the unusual black anthers shown in Ilifle picture below. However you may have to dust the pollen off the anthers to show they are black, since covered with pollen they may appear yellow.

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... enopleurum

The yellow flowered plant you show Wayne seems to be G. mihanovichii:-

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/GYMNOC ... vichii.htm

G. mihanovichii var. friedrichii

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/GYMNOC ... i_L373.htm

[WayneByerly]

Can i guess that your plant had ridges at some point?

I can't decide whether or not This is very funny or if it's scary as hell. Because while I see my name on the post that this link takes me to, I don't remember having made the post at all. This has happened to me before on more than one occasion. It's memory loss due to old age from what I gather. Plus some minor brain damage from an accident that I was in 21 years ago.

[WayneByerly]

Gymnocalycium mihanovichii v rysanekianum isn't a name that has ever been validly published, so there's no such thing as a 'real' one...

This page:

http://cactus-art.biz/schede/GYMNOCALYC ... vichii.htm

Says differently.

[WayneByerly]

The yellow flowered plant you show Wayne

The picture of the yellow flowered cactus in question was one I just picked up off of the internet from somewhere In order to illustrate the horizontal ridges in the ribs that mine does not appear to have. Perhaps I should not have used it Or maybe I should have been more clear about where it came from and what I was trying to do with it. My apologies.

[DaveW]

Hi Wayne.

Here is then picture from Graham Charles Gymnocalycium book that matches yours in lacking the horizontal ridges, although all other illustrations Graham shows for this species have them.

stenoplurum.jpg (110.02 KiB) Viewed 934 times

[WayneByerly]

DaveW...
A very nice cactus, although its flowers are a little paler than mine. Mine will occasionally put out flowers as pale as the second picture below, but generally, more like the first of these two pictures.

Cactus flowers to me are the most beautiful flowers in nature. And are probably responsible for my addiction to collecting cacti. I cannot tell you how excited I was the first time one of my cacti flowered. It was like the justification to existence that I had helped one of these plants to produce such a magnificently beautiful thing.

024.05 2015-06-06.JPG (130.19 KiB) Viewed 932 times

024.06 2015-06-06.JPG (156.15 KiB) Viewed 932 times

[WayneByerly]

It doesn't hurt any that it produces some of the most beautiful pictures you've ever seen.

Ha, ha, ha ... i need to be more careful in my proofreading. That should have said:

It doesn't hurt any that it produces some of the most beautiful flowers you've ever seen