April 2014 - I like this plant because.....

[Mal H]

I thought a broad category might invite something interesting/amusing/unusual etc.

[DaveW]

I like this plant because it's one of the few cacti that's naturally etiolated in habitat!

Turbinicarpus subterraneus

[John Dos]

But that's a gorgeous plant!

Can't compete with such a beauty, but when I read the title I immediately thought of one of those plants which captured my attention (while all the other eight-year-old played football) and dragged me away in lost-islands-fantasies with these strange bladder cells sparkling like diamonds an rubies, an ephemeral hour and a half pleasure (when the teacher didn't mind) and a short lived annual like most of the botanic treasures that bordered the dry and dusty play grounds of those days when I still didn't know that I was to study botany.

[Jens]

Quite some unusual plants John Dos. I like the close up!

I like this cactus because it was so ugly that I was already about to throw it away, but then it flowered the first time - and now I like it.

Echinocereus spinegemmatus

[Aiko]

Muiria hortenseae. I like it because it is so small, blobly and fuzzy.

[mac]

One night several years ago, while on a site visit to Southern Philippines, I dreamt of having this plant. The next day, we pass by a garden fair and saw this very plant so I bought it.

Astro (1).jpg (114.33 KiB) Viewed 4942 times

[Sylvia]

Rechsteineria leucotricha.JPG (56.79 KiB) Viewed 4752 times

Haworthia truncata hybrid .JPG (83.36 KiB) Viewed 4752 times

The Haworthia truncata I grew from Haworthia Society seed in 2007 and the Rechsteineria I bought in a Garden Centre in 2006.

[Phil_SK]

... it's properly spiny, like every cactus should be. It's one of my earlier flowering Lobivia, doing it's stuff when I appreciate it more. It keeps its flowers open until after I get home from work so I get to see them - photographed today at 6:20ish just after a dark-sky heavy shower.

L. maximiliana 'miniatiflora' KK813

[Keith H]

Stenocactus hastatus (?)
Taken this afternoon, it is the first of my cacti to flower since they have been back in my care. When I left them back in 1985 it was in a 21/2 inch pot, this is the first time I have seen it flower.

[iann]

I like Echinocactus polycephalus because I gre it from seed and because it is SPINY.

Also it changes colour in the rain