Melocactus ID

[mmcavall]

Would someone please help me IDing this Melocactus?





It is about 20 cm in diameter

Thanks in advance

[sundanz]

Melocactus matanzanus. A beautiful cactus!!

[mmcavall]

thanks for the ID Sundanz

could you tell me what are the distinctive traits of this species, which allows to distinguish it from other Melocacti?
I have only this species, five brothers grown from seed (the mother died) and I dont know anything about this plant. As I live in Brazil and we do have this genus naturally occuring here (I have already seen it in its habitat), I would like to have some info about what are the traits used to ID the species.

Thank you very much anyway for the ID

[oldcat61]

I'm not convinced it's matanzanus. The ceph should be more red/fuzzy & the fruit looks too dark. Let it get a bit bigger & try to ID then. The care is similar for most melos: warm in winter, well-drained mix, don't let them dry out & mist to duplicate the oceanside fog some varieties need. If you really like them, there are several good books available.

[greenknight]

It's too big to be matanzanus, which is the smallest Melo - it grows to about 9cm in diameter.

[oldcat61]

The 20cm part went right over my head; I'm too old to think in metric. I guess I should make a conversion chart & post it by the computer. Did I do the math right - almost 8 inches? Back to the ID guessing game, needs to grow a bigger ceph. Sue

[greenknight]

Yep, your math is right. I have a ruler here in the drawer that's marked in both cm and in, I just look at that. I know the conversion factor - 2.54 cm per in - but the ruler is quicker.

[mmcavall]

Thanks all for replies

and I have to apologize, since I measured it and it has in fact about 5,5 inches (14 cm), not 20 cm as I told you before.

Here is a picture with scale:



But if I understood correctly it would be a little big to mantazanus, right?

Lets give him two more years....

[oldcat61]

Melos are tough to ID. I have eleven & am confident of the proper names of only five. Sue

[mmcavall]

Melos are tough to ID. I have eleven & am confident of the proper names of only five. Sue

Yes, Sue, it seems to be trick. I just found out that in Brazil there are 23 Melocactus species, according to the Brazilian Flora Checklist, are very reliable source of information. They are all very similar...