Copiapoa krainziana

[Benjy]

Hi all,
I love to see Copiapoas flowering when small, & today i had another very small krainziana in flower at only 3.5cm, this habitat seed grown form was the second one to flower at this size this year
( the other one can be seen in the Photo Gallery, posted a couple of weeks ago)

[Ross M]

Nice to see your plants again Benjy

[CoronaCactus]

That's a very nice form! Does it have a collection number and/or location? I'd like to grow it!

[jadegarden]

Very nice - how old is it?

I'm struggling with Copiapos now because they seem to scorch so easily and I lost a LOT of seedlings this summer.

[Benjy]

That's a very nice form! Does it have a collection number and/or location? I'd like to grow it!

No collection number Darryl, but location is the hills on the north side of the San Ramon valley.

Very nice - how old is it?

Its 3.5 years old

I'm struggling with Copiapos now because they seem to scorch so easily and I lost a LOT of seedlings this summer.

I grow all my seedlings under the benches, but even there they can burn if the sun gets line of sight,
once they're 2 years old they're normally ok.

Nice to see your plants again Benjy

Thankyou

btw, For those interested, ive uploaded 53 files in the Copiapoa section of the Photo Gallery, i'll add more over time.
Where possible, ive tried to only show plants grown from habitat seed, and also only when in flower,
unless showing spine variation from different locations, like with the columna-albas,
Cheers.

[CoronaCactus]

Thanks for the location info.

[DaveW]

The RMF picture I posted here is from San Ramon.

http://www.bcss.org.uk/foruma/viewtopic ... oa#p176094

Some claim these stiff white or brownish spined Copiapoa's are a hybrid swarm between C. cinerea and C. krainziana. The typical krainziana like this grows further in I believe? RMF habitat picture.

DaveW

[Bob Sobelman]

daves picture is the one that i have. one of my first cactus love it.

[DaveW]

"Lots of Copiapoa here, of variable parentage, with the yellow/orange wool of C. haseltoniana on some plants that were growing next to very similar plants with white wool and fewer spines per areole (C. cinerea ssp cinerea) while others had white spines (C. albispina) – probably remnants of the hybrid swarm that can be found in the Quebrada San Ramon. growing in the rocks, not far from the Ocean,."

http://pkcactus.wordpress.com/2010/11/1 ... nd-taltal/

http://www.copiapoa.dk/side_e_engelsk.html

One of the forms Ritter described as scopulina, but which often goes around as "brunispina", now considered one of the San Ramon hybrid swarm by some:-

http://www.cactus-art.biz/catalog/produ ... ispina.asp

http://pkcactus.wordpress.com/2004/10/1 ... san-ramon/

http://blog.spiniflores.com/archives/ta ... -san-ramon

A job for DNA Sequencing to sort out?

DaveW

[Benjy]

The softest whitest spined form is probably the most attractive
But I think Rudolf said it best - Plants (krainzianas) in cultivation often have curly, soft spines,
which do not reflect typical plants in habitat.

Many people walk straight up the San Ramon valley floor (where the soft spined krainzianas are) and then walk back out, but theres a bigger picture if one walks in the hills to the north and the south of the valley,
Ive seen these different forms of krainziana dominate in huge zebra striped bands on the hillsides on both sides of the valley, imo i would call them forms
In all other Copiapoa species populations, different colored spines,
length, and stiffness can be seen, and are often dismissed.