I made a little promise in my 'summer colours' thread I'd post some cacti and succulents pics. I'll post in multiples of 3 again, Hope you enjoy:} 1 Agave victoria reginae variegata 'Golden Princess' 2 Haworthia angustifolia (and pup on flower stalk) 3 Aloe bellatula X
One last lot: 1 Cereus peruvians 2 Echinofossulocactus multicostatus 3 Faucaria Top left-F. tigrina lower-F. felina tuberculosa
Nice shots of beautiful plants! :) In your 1st set, the plant you have as Haworthia angustifolia...I believe is Haworthia limifolia var. ubomboensis. Mine colors up like that too. Thanks for sharing all these with us!
I am not 100% on that it's identical to H. angustifolia I have in a book but when I google your name it comes out very similar also. I think I have two forms of the same plant, 1 has short fat leaves and this one. (One just looks like a miniature of the other). I have had plenty of headaches trying to put names to some of my aloes/gasteria/haworthia and some other succulents and cacti. I think I have found something type it into my search engine and find 10 different looking plants with the same name (just type H. angustifolia into Google and click on the images to see what I mean). There's also been an overly large amount of incorrectly labelled plants being sold. I had a 12 month arguement with a fellow employee because we ordered Euphorbia lactea and got Euphorbia trigona instead. No one believed me because the plants came from a wholesale Cacti and Succulent nursery. Even showing pictures in several books led to 'Yeah but why would the wholesaler get it wrong?' I have to say that the naming of cacti and succulents still has a long way to go to come up to par with your more common ornamentals.
I don't think the Rebutia kupperiana is a Rebutia, body shape, spines and flowers point at Lobivia. There is a species/variant called Lobivia (lateritia) kupperiana, is your plant a red-flowered form of this, perhaps?
According to this site http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Cactaceae/Lobivia.html Lobivia is now named Echinopsis. Lobivia (lateritia) kupperiana syn with Echinopsis lateritia led me to yellow flowered cacti. I am not sure where I originaly got the name for the plant. Too late to look into it further tonight but I will have a look into it tomorrow. Back to the old naming game :}
Alright here are a couple of close up pics of the plant, it has a few small pups forming at it's base. Any help to anyone?
Well, it is definitely not a Rebutia, their ribs are not as well defined as in your plant. I am now even more convinced that it is a Lobivia (or Echinopis subgenus Lobivia, if you prefer that). L. kupperiana is yellow-flowered, I thought it might be a red-flowered form. Lobivia are so variable that I do not dare to guess what it is (I have some, but far from all ...)
I agree with the ribbing theory and the spines point away from Rebutia also I believe now it's been brought to my attention. I can't get over how (ridiculously) many different pictures you can find of something when it comes to cacti. Like I said before type in one name and end up with 12 different plants apparently with the same name. Even the books I have can totally conflict. It's no wonder I've left alone the identifying of these. I thought I'd have a better chance once they started flowering :{ I'm still searching among others. If I come across something definite I'll post it. I am steering towards Lobivia / Echinopsis also and have found with most cases these two have been combined into Echinopsis.
The flowers is an important clue, they look much like those on my L. pugionacantha, if that is of any help. Lobivia has been lumped into Echinopsis, but the experts seem to still disagree about this, and most collectors still list this group as a separate genus. Could be a hybrid too ...
Yes that seems to be the other thing adding to the difficulty is how much these plants seem to be able to cross so readily. I was looking at the L. pugionacantha yesterday for that exact reason but am still not sure. How important are the spines when it comes to i.d. with cacti?
Not as important as flowers and seeds, but their number, direction and length are always listed in plant descriptions. Unfortunately it can be difficult to understand exactly what the author meant, and as you know there is often large variations between different plants of a particular species in some genera, at least too large for reliable identification. Lobivia is one of the worst - I have a few variants of a single species, but I would never have guessed that, they could just as well have been from different genera. (There are Lobivia species that are relatively constant too, for example arachnacantha.) The spines vary with plant age and growing conditions too.
Okay, sorry to bring this one up again but ... This is what I reckon I have: a form of Lobivia backebergii v. oxyalabastra . In accordance with name changes it should be synonymous with Echinopsis but doesn't seem to match as well as Lobivia so Lobivia it shall be. Thanks for your help.
