Plant of the day is: Corynopuntia clavata
Spent a good part of the day going over the name of the genus in my head trying to memorize it. I think I've settled on thinking of a child named Cory trying to punt something.
Cory! No Puntia!
Taxonomy, etc.: A fairly small genus of about 15 species established by Knuth in 1935. You can also find synonym references to this as Grusonia clavata. Corynopuntia are known as the club chollas and are members of the Cactaceae family. Based on their distribution, they almost half to be (more on that shortly). It's not difficult to see why they get the name club from, as the pads are more cylindrical than say our native Opuntia humifusa. Opuntiods are distinguished from cacti by four characteristics.
1. Stems grow in distinctly jointed segments (hard to see through the spines of these pictures, but they sure do). The joints form at the onset of the dry season. Like shutting down shop for the season. Neat eh?
2. They have glochids on their areoles. Yeah, think of very tiny barbed spines that come off easily. These, more than anything are a source of pain and annoyance for the uninitiated into Opuntiods. The tiny hairs can be VERY painful, the long noticeable spines are easy to avoid but the glochids can really get ya. Wear gloves and don't touch your face. I broke this rule, as I used the small spines as a way of not touching the actual stem of the plant. You can do this with a young segment and a nimble touch but still always wash your hands afterwards.
3. Rudimentary leaves are present on new joints. I did not know this, and will have to keep a close eye.
4. The seeds have a covering called an aril while other cacti have shiny black seeds. Think of an aril as a kind of fleshy covering around a seed. Taxus or yews are an easy seed with a noticeable red aril. Desertmuseum.org fantastic writeup
ID: Some ID above for you, but worth knowing that it is clump forming with fairly small stems only 7cm or so with fairly large yellow flowers. Full description thanks to eol.org here.
Habitat/Range: The genus is present in Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. They pretty much have to be in the Americas because of the family. Euphorbiaceae of similar looks are found in Africa and represent a wonderful the wonder of evolution. Two families of very different parentage evolving similar form and structure based on environment. Evolution. Heck of a thing.
THIS particular Corynopuntia, C. clavata is actually endemic to New Mexico. I suggest a Spring trip. It is IUCN listed as 'least concern' because it occurs over a large area and is fairly abundant without any human treats. The no human threats reason is likely due to the Opuntiods propensity for surviving in very arid climates, they are often found where other cacti cannot subsist.
Note the Lithurgopsis apicalis bee :).
Culture: Must be kept quite dry. IUCN site lists it as being tolerant of temperatures as low as -23C and withstanding snow cover for weeks. I'm curious if it could be grown here in Missouri. In the ground might prove tricky, but perhaps in a trough/pot in a location protected from wind. Should work easily as a houseplant if you've got a lot of light. South facing windows/supplemental lighting would be a must.
Propagation: The neat thing about a lot of cacti is that you can just sever a part and let it heal or callus over and it will form roots readily. With Opuntiods, that segmented growth habit makes things even easier, just snap off a segment. The VERY IMPORTANT thing to remember is to let the cutting dry and callus before planting. Don't just stick it right into a moist peaty mix or you'll get rot. The cutting has plenty of moisture in it to dry out for several weeks. After waiting a couple of weeks stick the cutting in a well drained, and I mean VERY well drained mix. Large chunks of perlite, charcoal, and even lava rock with small amounts of soil/compost/peat components. Water about once a week to establish and that is about it. I noticed my cutting has begun to swell after a few weeks, which seems a good indicator that it is forming roots and taking up water.
From seed, make sure the aril is removed, and then treat like any other cactus seed. A fairly easy method can be found HERE that shares a very similar protocol to fern spore propagation (just with different media).
Flower is almost as big as plant. Love that.
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