Cactus in Botanical Garden

If you have a cactus plant and need help identifying it, this is the place to post it.
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jfdocampo
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Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by jfdocampo »

Photo was taken in Alcala de Henares Botanical Garden (Madrid). November 19th.

Regards,
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MrXeric
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by MrXeric »

I'm thinking Lobivia? Perhaps a form of L. haematantha, like var. densispina or var. rebutioides. Some may prefer the Echinopsis genus name rather than Lobivia.
jfdocampo
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by jfdocampo »

I'll take a look to the species you mention. Thank you.
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anttisepp
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by anttisepp »

Looks like sickly proliferating Lobivia aurea. (Phytoplasma infected??)
jfdocampo
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by jfdocampo »

In the upper part of the photo there is a cactus identified as Escobaria chihuahuensis. Maybe it's all the same plant, and most of the cactus has some kind of disease like you suggest and that's the reason for such an unusual aspect. I'll try to track it in future visits to the Botanical Garden. Thank you in any case.
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MrXeric
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by MrXeric »

jfdocampo wrote: Tue Dec 27, 2022 1:24 pm In the upper part of the photo there is a cactus identified as Escobaria chihuahuensis. Maybe it's all the same plant, and most of the cactus has some kind of disease like you suggest and that's the reason for such an unusual aspect. I'll try to track it in future visits to the Botanical Garden. Thank you in any case.
I did notice the Escobaria (now Pelecyphora for some), but the large clump has stems with quite distinct ribs, which none of the Mammilloids have (their areoles are spirally arranged). The clump does look monstrose (some monstrose mutations are suspected to be caused by phytoplasma infections), but I would be very surprised if such mutation resulted in those distinct ribs on the Escobaria.
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C And D
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by C And D »

Looks like a Echinopsis chamaecereus that's been grown on the dry side
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Nobody
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by Nobody »

The autotermination aspect where the meristems grow, develop and then run out of cells and then a new meristem initiates from an areole is peculiar.

That type of growth reminds me of Arthrocereus microsphaericus, as well as the Sausage Plant form of Echinopsis macrogona, and some of the Echinopsis scopulicola x Echinopsis grandiflora F2 I have, 3 of which have displayed a similar autotermination habit.

Arthrocereus microsphaericus is particularly interesting, as that it can look rather similar in some ways to the plant in the OP, though I don't think they are the same. However it is difficult to see the fine detail of the areoles in the OP photos. Arthrocereus microsphaericus is a small ceroid plant that has been utterly confused with a totally unrelated plant, a Schlumbergera, due to incompetent taxonomy. Here is a link to a paper explaining that:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... d_anything

If you read the PDF in the above link you will see photographs of genuine Arthrocereus microsphaericus and can see why I am reminded of the form somewhat, though not entirely, by the images in the post.

Lots of little cacti look very similar and without being able to see fine details, let alone what the flowers and fruit look like, it can be nearly impossible to identify cacti that appear like this.

The autotermination aspect of growth can be genetic, but it may also relate to infection and the plant in the OP could look that way because of a disease. '
Many of the same genre others mentioned previously also come to mind, like Escobaria and Echinocereus, Acharagma and even some Pediocactus can look like this, but it isn't especially common for them to have this autotermination habit.

For those interested in the genetics of autotermination forms I will share this excerpt below from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _structure
Another homeobox gene family involved in meristem function is defined by WUSCHEL (WUS) (Mayer et al. 1998). Mutants lacking WUSCHEL are unable to maintain a functional meristem. Apparently a SAM is initiated during embryogenesis but, after having formed several organs, the cells then fail to be incorporated into primordia (Laux et al. 1996). New meristems continuously form but are defective and terminate prematurely in aberrant flat structures. The central zone of the meristem is not maintained since primordia initiation often occurs ectopically within the centre. Occasional new meristems are initiated in place of lateral organs and this results in a characteristic architecture, also observed in weak stm phenotypes.
This type of mutation, where WUS fails to function, results in a specific type of autotermination of meristem growth and initiation. Such mutations are well known in some cacti and in addition to the species and forms previously mentioned Echinopsis lageniformis f. monstruosa 'Clone B' is one well known example of this in cacti. The mutation often impairs fertility due to how it alters flower formation.

There is some indication that this type of WUS mutation can arise from mismatching of paired chromosomes in hybrid cacti and it's appearance can indicate that the specimen bearing it was produced through a hybridization event, as that does show up in hybrid populations. This means that specimens exhibiting this type of growth are not good representations of the normal form of the species they had as a parent, regardless of the cause of the growth. The fact that interspecific and intergeneric hybrids can occur in cacti and many people collect and sow seed, by labeling it as the same as the mother it came from also makes this situation far far worse and much more confused. Many plants in horticulture do not exist in nature but experts still tend to identify them as examples of species that do exist in nature. Sadly a lot of evidence is totally ignored because it doesn't fit the taxonomy, though it should be the other way round.

I sincerely doubt that this plant can be conclusively identified without seeing it's flowers and fruit, but many excellent guesses as to it's identity can be easily made.
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C And D
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by C And D »

Another observation
It looks to me that there are 2 different plants in the photo

The front one looks like Echinopsis chamaecereus

The upper plant is identified as Escobaria chihuahuensis in the photo
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jfdocampo
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Re: Cactus in Botanical Garden

Post by jfdocampo »

Thank you for all the comments. Like I said before, I'll try to track it down.
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