Anyone have an interest in O. polyacatha?

[Hoy]

Probably it had been too risky to send pads to Norway
But if you once take the trouble saving seed I would like to try some!

[Weiser]

This next group of O. polyacantha clones are from an unrecognized variety. Variety rhodantha falls under the umbrella of variety polyacantha, since it has never been validated by a published botanical paper. Dave Ferguson, Curator of the Rio Grande Botanical Garden, Albuquerque, MN, has communicated to me, that he believes, it would have a good chance of attaining varietal standing if such a paper were published.
These unrecognized 'rhodantha' clones tend to have thicker pads, with heavy, stout spines than are found in other O. polyocantha varieties. They are found in the areas of the Colorado River drainage of Utah, north into southern Idaho. Dave noted that, in Utah, the closer a clone grows to the Colorado river the more oval and elongated the pads become. I am assuming, this gradual change in pad shape would be a sign of genetic specification rather than environmental influences. This trait can be seen in the last photo of this post.

This clone is from southern Idaho.



This is also an Idaho clone. The flower color is unique, it is a translucent pink with lime green mid ribs.





This clone is from Utah and shows the elongated pads found along the Colorado river area.

[Martin Tversted]

Opuntia polyacantha is very easy from seed. I sow them in late fall inside the unheated greenhouse. Now and then during winter I put snow on the pots. It melts and feezes. I have good germination in early May - june. Allways use mineral soil and no plastik cover. As much sun as the grown up plants but that particular thing may be different for you people down south. Remember that most opuntioids are very thirsty but dislikes standing air and organic soil.

Martin

[Weiser]

Martin
I will give it a try, yet again. I just do not have any luck germinating them. I use the vernalization method and sow them in the fall on a mineral substrait. We get freeze thaw cycles almost every day in the winter. I would expect the dormancy of the seed to break at some point but have not hit the right combination. I guess.  

How deep are you sowing the seed? I cover the ones, I've tried, about three times the thickness of the seed.
I assume you do not nick the seed coating either.

[Martin Tversted]

I dont do anything with the seed no. I alway cover the seed in the same depth and the thicknes of the seed. So that would be one time and not 3. Btw,you have some stunning plants!

[Nold]

Here's a polyacantha that originally came from Intermountain Cactus. I forget the name given to it.
(The picture is framed so there are reflections.)

Bob

[Weiser]

Bob
Truly a lovely piece of art!!

Thank you for sharing a little of your collection with us.

[Weiser]

Here we have variety hystricina. Opuntia polyacantha var. hysticina is found in southern Utah, south eastern Nevada, and the northern portions of Arizona and New Mexico. It is a cactus of the southern Colorado river drainage. In General the pads are elongated ovals densly covered with stout long spines. The spines on the upper third of the pads ascending with the lower spines descending. The spines can be varied in color usually white, bronze, or even black.   Flower colors can be yellow through pink. I have only seen pink flowered clones.

                                 This first is a white spined clone.

                                         
                                         

                                  This is a bronze spined clone

                                         
                                         

                                 This last is a black spined clone

                                         
                                         

[Weiser]

These are from the variety erinacea. Opuntia polyacantha var. erinacea is found across the Southern Great Basin, Mohave and upper Sonoran Deserts of NV, CA, UT, and AZ.  In general the spines of this variety are long, thin, flexable, dense and white/gray. On older pads they can be up to six inches long, wavy, and flowing almost obscuring the pads. On younger pads they tend to point strait outward from the plain of the pads. Flowers as in all polyacantha are pink or yellow.

[Nold]

Not a polyacantha, of course, but I noticed some comments on opuntias from seed.
They seed around here with abandon, more or less. (Funny, the most prolific seeder I've found is Pediocactus knowltonii.)
This summer I was weeding around the group of Cyl. imbricata, both the purple form and the white, and found several of these.
(It was growing upright but fell over some time and started growing upright again, as you can see.)

Bob

[Weiser]

Bob
Always cool to find babies in the garden.
I have a friend who grew Opuntias for years and let the fruits fall were they may. Well he hasn't raised Opuntias for six years now but a few sprout every year, even in the cracks of the sidewalk in front of his house.

[Nold]

Always cool to find babies in the garden. 

Depends on how you find them. I usually find them by putting my hands on them, since I think there's nothing there.
Like acantholimons. The plant people say doesn't seed around. It does.

Bob

[Hoy]

You have some very impressive polyacanthas, John!

[DesertZone]

I don't know if these are interesting but are a few i have in my yard.

[DesertZone]

You have some very impressive polyacanthas, John!

Yes very nice John.