Pyrrhocactus

[Peter]

Good point Stuart - what's galling about photos of this type is that there is no indicator of size of plant (e.g. lens cap). Most will be small plants but a newbie wouldn't know.
That's meant as a slight crit of super pics.

[DaveW]

Don't know for sure stuart but the heads look about football size to me. The New Cactus Lexicon says for umadeave body <40cm x 10-25cm.

I said earlier P. bulbocalyx is more usually reddish spined rather than the black one I posted earlier.

Pyrrhocactus bulbocalyx (Mazan)

[attachment 14820 BULBOCALYX-MAZAN.jpg]

That's your lot!

DaveW

[Vic]

Yes I'll second that Stuart - stunning, I especially like the El Moreno plant, though the last one above has fantastic spination too:) Obviously very variable.

Keep them coming Dave;)

[Thord]

Beautiful pictures of beatiful plants, thanks! The first bulbocalyx looked very interesting,anyone knows a collection number? The second pic is what mine looks like,not as heavily spined though.

[Benjy]

I have a winner, the Pyrrhocactus bulbocalyx (Mazan) is definately a favorite

Benjy

Thanks Dave

[Stuart Estell]

Yes, I agree. The spination on that last bulbocalyx is absolutely fantastic.

Peter, you're right - I know the subject has come up in conversation on here before, but Benjy's copiapoa photos with rulers in have also made me think that I ought to include objects for scale on my own photos to make them more meaningful...

[B.A.]

Superb Dave

[DaveW]

I have virtually not been on the Forum for the last 4-5 years but when I put a link in to a new Pyrrhocactus on our branch email circle one of our branch members reminded me of this post. It therefore seems a good place to put in the new Pyrrhocactus for comparison purposes rather than in a disconnected new post.

https://cactus-moravia.eu/other-news/py ... ak-sp-nov/

The point has been raised about germinating some Pyrrhocactus species, particularly P. umadeave. I have sown quite a few seeds of that with zero germination. Roger Ferryman sowed many with only sparse germination. However a decade or so ago when he was transferred to South Africa to manage his firms branch there he took some of the same seed and said it germinated freely. Obviously some difference in climate, but what?

As has been said many Pyrrhocactus seedlings do not like being pricked out, which is when most are lost. Obviously when a plant germinates in habitat it is never subjected to that trauma since it remains where it germinated all its life. Therefore it seems to be best if you can plant the seeds with a reasonable distance between them and leave them in the original container they germinated in until they become too crowded before potting on.

[iann]

Roger felt, perhaps, that a large diurnal temperature swing helped his germination of P. umadeave. Anecdotally, this seems to be the case in the UK also. My best germination events coincided with (accidental) temperature swings from possibly near freezing at night to above 30C by day. With just one or two days of this on two separate occasions, I got 30-40% germination instead of the 5% (or less!) that I would get otherwise, but I haven't been able to reproduce this under more controlled conditions. Perhaps I haven't been brave enough? Perhaps there is some other set of conditions that is needed in addition to, or perhaps leading up to, the temperature variations.

I will try again when I get some more seed. Realistically, that isn't going to come from my own plants!