just for interest

[Roy]

You may recall last winter I posted a picture of a C. santa cruziensis and said it was producing different coloured flowers than the scarlet ones I was expecting, well it's at it again. Time will tell whether the flowers with the yellow tips eventually turn red.

[Cactus Jack]

Hi Roy would that be male and female flowers on the same plant ?? theres a staimen protruding from one ?

[Roy]

Hi Jack,
I don't think so, both seem to have all the required bits

[Maria J]

Wow! You would assume them to be from different plants side by side like that!!

[Roy]

Hi Maria,
it's a failing of mine, other people reach for a book. I reach for a scalpel and cut things open and have a look:-))))

[Roy]

I've put this on the forum before but luckily when my computer crashed and I lost a lot of info I had a copy of this.
I have taken pictures of vascular bundles before but they have been of dried specimens. This was of a freshly cut plant so the texture was still swollen. It shows how the vascular bundle has adapted to the wound caused when a limb was cut off the cactus

[Maria J]

I don't know that I'd be so brave to grab a scalpel, but it is interesting to see what's inside and how it all works!

[Phil Hocking]

Just so we don't confuse anyone the solitary thing protruding from the top flower is a stigma (the female bit). The multiple red things protruding from the lower flower are the stamens (the male bits). The bits on the ends of the stamens that carry the pollen are the anthers I believe, although even my dictionary seems a little confused.

Phil in Somerset, UK

[Julie]

Wow, so that's what they look like on the inside. I did wonder!

I wonder what my E.obesas are like inside, but I could never think of cutting one up to see. I guess that squeamishness goes away with plenty of grafting?