Photo
and © copyright by
Andrea
B. (Bologna, Italy)
http://www.cactusfriends.com/Andrea/index.html
Discocactus horstii is a lovely and intriguing species
surely
one of the most interesting cactus, it more closely resembles
some coral-reef creature than it does a plant.
It has remained a rare collector’s items for long time.
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Description: Solitary globose cactus with a
radially segmented body, ca. 5-6cm cm in diameter (up to 8 in culture)
Plant height with cephalium 4 to 5 cm; ribs 12 to 20 prominent with 12
to 14 areoles per rib on plants with cephalium The colour of the
epidermis is at first green and later dark red/brown. radial spines 8
to10 light coloured recurved backwards in a comb like arrangement, 2-4 mm
long.
Flowers: The deliciously fragrant nocturnal
blooms are 7.5 cm long, 6 cm
inches in diameter . They come in profusion in summer, out of a
cephalium covered by whitish to light brown wool and bristles. Fruit is
white.
These cacti are not easy to cultivate, but when grown to maturity,
however, they possess an exotic look shared by no other cacti, and
they’ll generally attract a lot of attention.
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Cultivation: it is rather difficult to grow and frost tender, should be
kept at above 15° C if grown on its own roots (8°C if grafted) need
full sun or afternoon shade. Young seedlings are generally grafted
because they are slow growing and very rot prone when kept on their own
roots and though they can’t endure long stretches of total dryness, too
much water will rot them, as their weak root systems tend to be
inefficient at sucking up water from wet soil. They generally resent
being repotted and can take a long time to establish.
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Cultivation
and Mail Sale 
