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Every time new offsets appear they start out purplish and shriveled. Once they grow out a bit they turn normal color when watered regularly, but if they do not get watered for a couple weeks the offsets turn purplish again and shrivel a bit. At first I thought there was rot inside the cacti, but that was a year ago and they have been growing vigorously since then.

I have never seen this before, the two of these I have are very fast growing cacti that produce large amounts of offsets.

Any ideas on the genus/species would be helpful.

Thanks

I think it is some sort of Echinocereus. Purple coloring is a normal response from some cactus to stress such as high temps or bright sun. Some just have purple new growth no matter what.

Rot usually is black or brown and the area is really soft.

Yes I have seen a couple of cacti with rot, nasty stuff and it spreads quickly too.

Thanks for the info daiv

I think it might be Echinopsis chamaecereus...

A pic

http://sites.google.com/site/succulentc ... cereus.jpg

and info from cactiguide

http://cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Ech ... amaecereus

This guy produces offsets identical to this, and the offsets are easy to root. Everything matches up I have not seen the flowers though.