Chamaecereus and chamaelobivia

[Brian]

I did not want to spoil Sylvia’s fantastic post of some gorgeous chamaeacereus hybrids. Also I love the Southfield own chamaelobivia hybrids, their own Lincoln. Get the right plants and they are all great to grow. So forgive my ignorance but what is the difference in terms of origin, growing requirements, form, and very important, longevity of flowering?

[daniel82]

Chamaecereus silvestrii was the original species, not sure where it resides now. Possibly as an echinopsis? Anyway, chamaelobivia is a cobbled together name that is attached to hybrids that originate from chamaecereus x lobivia. Perhaps a better way to use it is to add Xchamaelobivia to illustrate that it is a made up name for a hybrid "genus".

Although depending on your viewpoint about the taxonomy of this whole group, they could just be refered to as all echinopsis hybrids.

[Brian]

Thanks Daniel. Still curious for information I resorted to GOOGLE. it appears that the chamae bit derives from Latin for low growing, which makes sense.

[BruceM]

Chamaecereus is now Chamaecereus Echinopsis, Daniel covered the Chamaelobivia part.

In terms of care they are very easy cacti. I have several of the Lincoln hybrids and they are very floriferous. They only last a couple of days like most Echinopsis, but they flower frequently. My Lincoln Gem has been putting out new flowers daily for about 10 days and still has lots of buds. So even though they only last a couple of days in general, it keeps putting on a show. They also put out numerous flushes throughout the season. I posted a pic of my Lincoln Gem in Sylvia's thread.

Southfields, who sell the Lincoln hybrids pot theirs in largely organic. It's stuck like a rock when you buy them, I clean it off with the hose. Then re-pot in your chosen mix, I prefer high mineral content and more frequent watering. But as you can tell, Southfields use an organic mix, I use largely mineral and they don't mind either. It comes down to your preference.

[MikeT]

Chamaecereus is now Chamaecereus Echinopsis

Slight typo: it's Echinopsis chamaecereus (genus = Echinopsis, species =chamaecereus)

[BruceM]

You're right, thanks Mike