Many of the box stores, and probably other places as well will hot glue flowers to their cactus to sell more of them. I don't know for sure what the flowers for this species is supposed to look like, but If the flower feels like straw, there is a very good chance it's not real. Best way to tell for sure is to look for any signs of glue under the flower. Be careful though, many people have damaged their cactus trying to take the flowers off once they found out that they weren't real.
your right, that is really stupid that they would put a fake flower on my cactus. i cant believe i thought it was real. it feels like its made out of paper, what a disgrace to the naturalness of plants.
Unfortunately, the sellers request the straw flowers (from the growers) because unknowing folks will buy plants with flowers on them. These "glufers" can be carefully removed using a heated Exacto knife (or similar) without too much damage to the plant. It's a shame they do this to the poor things. I have cactus trying to grow out after my de-flowering surgery. :|
