Anyone read Japanese ?

[Mike P]

Yes one of my Chinese colleagues from work confirms it says Jade peony.

[Mal L]

Ralph is correct that as it stands the top part says ".... king", which doesn't make much sense. My wife suggests that the second character has lost the small stroke to the right that would have made it say "jade" instead, and that the complete top phrase is probably "beautiful jade".It could be that this refers to the plants colouration, and that the lower "jade peony" alludes to the overall resemblance of the plant to a "green"peony flower.

[iann]

Certainly doesn't look much like 'Cauliflower King' ...

[Tina]

Thanks all so it wasn't a new exciting name just a generic description for 'any old cactus', to think I kept that label all that time

[ralphrmartin]

I think the name "Jade Peony" is quite apt. It's quite like the colour of Jade, the shape is rather like a peony, and to cap it all, some British guys call these "living rocks" (back to jade again).

And Tina, in Japan they use a mix of their own characters, and Chinese characters (sometimes with subtly altered meanings), so saying this is Chinese is entirely consistent with it coming from Japan, where the same characters almost certainly mean the same.

[kohinoor]

實生"玉牡丹"

This name is used in China Japan and Taiwan.
牡丹=Peony It;s the common name for Ariocarpus.
玉牡丹 means Jade Peony
for example Ariocarpus agavoides is 龍舌牡丹 it means Agave Peony .

玉牡丹 is a cultivar or subspeciese of Ariocarpus retusa. But i am not Ariocarpus expert so i am not very sure about the taxonomy.玉牡丹 have bigger and more nice looking tubular.

The plain old normal Ariocarpus retusa is call 岩牡丹 or Rock Peony .
So it's safe to assume 玉牡丹(Jade Peony ) is more rare then 岩牡丹(Rock Peony )

實生 mean seed grown.

so the tab says:
seed grown Jade Peony (Ariocarpus retusa cultivar )

[Tina]

Thank you Kohinoor thats a fuller explanation, it is an unusual looking ariocarpus I could quite get into the cultivars, its just a shame they are so slow growing & not readily available, my friend doesn't import them anymore so no more gifts .

[ralphrmartin]

I've also been told that 實生, seed grown, implies that it's not a graft.