Another one which is desperately slow from seed is Tephrocactus (Puna) bonnieae. I've even seen statements that a majority of the seed is sterile, but my own dissection showed 100% of five seeds contained a viable looking embryo. The fresh seed is thoroughly wrapped up in its funicular coat, no trace visible from outside.
Its a shame that I destroyed one and badly damaged another Anyway, five days on from dissection and we have a little seedling wearing its hat One out of three isn't bad, one out of five if you count the two I "broke". Nothing came up from intact seed sown 3 months ago.
[attachment 15781 bonnieae1.jpg]
Cool, thanks Ian.
I never even thought with the big Opuntiod seeds there would be a seed within a seed (so to speak) Very interesting. I actually have some T. articulatus seeds to play with, as well as some cholla (C. echinocarpa) seeds i collected a few months back.
Should be fun trying to not cut my fingers off
Oh wait, maybe that won't be a problem...i have a small soldering station with multiple swivel arms and gator clips!
Most of what you see is John Innes, but there is also some fine grit. Soaking the seeds is helpful because it softens the funicular coat which makes it easier to scrape away without using too much force. I'm not sure that soaking helps the seed to germinate, at least not until it is ready in other ways.
No problems this end germinating the Tephrocactus fiambalensis nom. prov. seed from the BCSS list. One seedling already visible, and another hump in the soil, despite no scratching/chipping/molestation of the seed
(Edit...) these were sown on New Year's Day, so it's taken exactly a week for them to show themselves.
I'll add Tephrocactus aoracanthus seed. The seed on the left and the one on the right show the shape best. The mushroom stem that is the actual seed is pointing up and the hat part is sitting on the paper. Not as big as some Tephrocactus seeds.
[attachment 16491 pediophilus1.jpg]
Whatever works for you, Darryl. I don't think I've found the magic bullet yet. I've dissected them down to bare embryos and even some of those don't sprout. Others obviously get damaged by the treatment. Sometimes completely intact seed sprouts at a good percentage, other times it won't move.
Anyway, five days on from dissection and we have a little seedling wearing its hat 
One out of three isn't bad, one out of five if you count the two I "broke". Nothing came up from intact seed sown 3 months ago.
