Euphorbia obessa Solved

[Guest]

Hi Julie,

This is a picturte of a symetrica
This is another
This is a largere specimen

As I know nothing about Euphorbias I will label them as everybody tells me.

[Julie]

Symmetricas are more stripey... that's the only way I can describe it. Looking again, I think just about all of the plants in the second pic are symmetricas.

Frank Vincentz answered a lot of my forby questions by email. He has a site which is bursting with information and pics: www.euphorbia.de . There there is a little about obesa.

There's a comparison.. although my symm's don't look very much like this one. This one has been given lots of light, I bet.



This is a better pic.. stripes are usually much fainter.



As for the going pear shaped issue, it seems that low light is not the only (or maybe not at all?) reason why forbies go wonky. (some of the round ones have pale new growth too.) From what I've found, nobody seems to know any more about that than they do about the mysteries of Forby gender.

It's also said that they start tangerine-shaped, and grow more columnar with age... however I have a little one about 11cm circumference who is slightly taller than wide, and my biggest fatty, Girlie, is still tangerine shaped but about 27 cm around the waist. She is geting taller, so it works for individual plants, but you can't use dimensions to compare ages. *sigh* It's so complicated!

Derek (and other itchy-footed ones), have you ever see a pear-shaped forby in habitat?

[Julie]

Hmm Bob, I would say that on your third link, that the top one is not a symmetrica, but a normal obesa.

Here are two symmetrica and one meloformis.

[Julie]

Here's some more talk on the pear-shaped issue.

http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1805

To summarise - could be overfeeding or going monstrose. But with the paleness it's possible that lack of light might make it more likely to go up.

In habitat, would getting taller get around the issue of not enough light, were a seed to grow in a too-dark place? I think not, if they live under low-growing bushes.. however low the bushes, they are most likely taller than a really tall forby.

I don't think it's just "growing columnar". My old girl has got taller and yet remains something like spherical.. others I have seen pics of get fatter all the way up the stalk, not just the bottom.

Who else has got a non-round/oval forby? Phil Hocking? Phil, how has the shape of your forby changed over the years?

[Phil Hocking]

Hi Julie

Mine started to go a bit columnar, then developed a bit of a point last year. That was probably caused by lack of light due to not having a greenhouse for a couple of years. I'll get it back into the greenhouse as early in the spring as I can. I don't have any heating in it though, so I'll have to be careful. Come to think of it the plant has survived for several years without heating but I really can't remember if I always brought it indoors or not. Does anyone else grow it in an unheated greenhouse?

Phil

[iann]

I need to find a car boot like that, Bob. My best bargain so far was buying the big ugly Opuntia for one pound because I needed a large clay pot

[Julie]

Poor unloved Opuntia!

[Trevor]

There's a reasonably close up pic of a symmetrica and a group shot of it amongst some obesa's in this thread - http://www.bcss.org.uk/forum/read.php?f ... eply_37742
Looking at this lovely haul, a couple do look like symm's - espescially the two lower left and the upper right one in the second pic. The ones with the more pronounced ribs may have a bit of something else in them...valida perhaps ?



Post Edited (01-03-07 23:06)

[Julie]

And that one is a beautiful olive green... I bet it's had plenty of sun.

Let's see if mine get more pronounced stripes this summer...