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Echinopsis subdenudata cristata
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Description: This is a very
nice crested Echinopsis, easily recognizable for its
almost spineless body.
Stem: Very fat (quite large for a crested plant ( 8 to 20 cm
thick) it can form in age a huge convoluted mound.
Spines: absent
Flowers: These cacti produce gorgeous, night-blooming, white
funnel-shaped, fragrant flowers with long
tubes 15-22 cm long. Old plant may have
many flowers at a time. This species
blooms from late spring to all summer long, the flowers open
on the morning of the first day
and remain opened all the night long but last
only one day in full beauty, at the second day they start to wither.
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Cultivation: The grafted
plants are easy to grow and will form a large brain-like mounds
with age. Watering during the active growing season (spring and
summer); this will encourage steady growth, and prevent the large
tubercles from becoming flabby.
The plants on their own roots do well under
cultivation. Use very draining
soil, water during the aestival growth cycle (They need
plenty of water), but need to be avoided wetting the bodies of these
plants while they are in sunlight. A wet cactus in the sun light can
cause sun burning which can lead to scares or even fungal infections and
death.
Need half sun. Keep dry at 10°C in winter,
but they can tolerate sporadic light frost.
Propagation: Grafting or
stem cutting. |
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Family:
Cactaceae (Cactus
Family)
Scientific Name: Echinopsis subdenudata Cárdenas
1956
Forma cristata
Origin:
Garden origin (Nursery
produced cultivar)
Common Names includes: Crested Easter Lily Cactus, Crested Night-blooming Hedge-hogs.
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The
cause of cresting: The cause of cresting is not fully explained.
Biologists disagree
as to why some plants grow in this unusual form.
Some
speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of
a strike of
lightning or freeze damage, but whatever the stimulus, the growth
point of the stem has switched from a geometric point, to a line, which
folds and undulates as the crest expands. Though these crested
E. subdenudata are very rare, cresting occurs naturally, and can be
encountered in many other cactus species.
Photo and © copyright by Simone (cactuslover-Italy)
Photo of conspecific taxa,
varieties, forms and cultivars of Echinopsis subdenudata.
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