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A flower at last - but what is it now called?

Posted: Thu Jun 10, 2021 9:20 pm
by Mal L
After 24 years in my hands I finally have a flower on this plant. I wonder what I have done right this year - or conversely not done right in most of the previous 23 years?

maihueniopsis albisetescens2.jpg
maihueniopsis albisetescens2.jpg (50.56 KiB) Viewed 2079 times

The label says Maihueniopsis albisetescens, but I really don't know much about these plants and I cannot seem to find any info on this name. It came with the number WG 135. Checking on Ralph's database this yielded Wolfgang Gemmrich's Notocactus sellowii, which it obviously is not. Digging further into my records I realised that I obtained it as a very small plant from a visit to W G (Rene) Geissler's nursery, so could it be a W Geissler number? Is it likely to be a reference to a habitat seed collection by him, or just a reference number given to plants in his personal collection? Now it has flowered is it possible to identify what it would be called today? To give it some scale the clump is about 20 cm across (without spines) and 10 cm high (without flower).

Re: A flower at last - but what is it now called?

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:21 pm
by RAYWOODBRIDGE
Hi Mal
Did you move it to a more sunny position, that always helps with small Opuntias. Rene used WG numbers as ref. numbers in his collection some of which became TSG ref. numbers when TSG first started.
Opuntia albisetascens was discovered by Curt Backeberg in Argentina and thought to be a new rare species at the time and placed in the Pumilae section of Opuntia. later it was moved to Tunilla and now is Airampoa albisaetacens.
That said I think the plant you have in the photo is one of the many forms of Maihueniopsis glomerata

Re: A flower at last - but what is it now called?

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:09 pm
by Mal L
Hi Ray,
Thanks very much for all the information and particularly for the correct spelling of albisaetacens. That explains why I couldn't find any mention of the plant when I searched using the incorrectly spelt name on the label!
I haven't moved the plant recently - in fact it has been in the same position on a sunny shelf for quite a few years. However, my neighbour did remove a conifer early last year which meant that that part of the greenhouse does now receive the sun a little bit earlier in the morning than before, so maybe its flowering has been in response to the slightly longer period of sunlight. I will keep my fingers crossed for maybe more than one flower next year!

Re: A flower at last - but what is it now called?

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2021 2:34 pm
by RAYWOODBRIDGE
The conifer going would make all the difference, I had a similar problem at the last house we lived in.