Monday, September 24, 2007

Dirk’s collection of cristate and variegated cacti

Dirk is a lucky man. Anyway, judged by the quality of his collection of crested and variegated cacti, he has to be ;-) I think you’ll agree after seeing the pictures that Dirk has been kind enough to let me share in this post.

Ariocarpus retusus var. elongata crest
Ariocarpus retusus var. elongata crest

I’m particularly fond of this photo of a cristate Ariocarpus retusus, resembling a plant creature one would not be too surprised to encounter in a Tolkien novel.

Dirk is living in Belgium and knows a commercial cactus grower in Holland who lets him pick and choose interesting seedlings when he’s visiting (to stock up on Harrisia for grafting). On this account Dirk has got quite a collection of variegated Lophophora.

Lophophora williamsii f. variegata
Lophophora williamsii f. variegata

I especially like the pastel pink, yellow, and green colors of the above plant – it’s almost a wine gum look-alike ;-) But the rest of the collection is definitely also nice.

Lophophora williamsii f. variegata grafted on Harrisia
Lophophora williamsii f. variegata grafted on Harrisia

Lophophora williamsii f. variegata 'Zebra'
Lophophora williamsii f. variegata 'Zebra'

Collection of variegated Lophophora williamsii
Collection of variegated Lophophora williamsii

Dirk also has plants showing dichotomous branching like these beautifully symmetric two-headed Obregonia denegrii and Lophophora williamsii plants.

Two-headed Obregonia denegrii
Two-headed Obregonia denegrii

Collection of two-headed Lophophora williamsii
Collection of two-headed Lophophora williamsii

Last I heard from Dirk he had just returned from a visit to the 2007 ELK. He had tried to obtain a cristate Lophophora – unfortunately without any luck. You can see more of Dirk’s amazing collection at his cactelders web site.

I hope you enjoyed this featured collection - if you have pictures or information you would like to share, you can drop me a mail at “lophophora [dot] blog [at] gmail [dot] com”.

4 comments:

  1. There is some sort of color change at the tips of his Ariocarpus - is that normal?

    At any rate, this is quite an impressive collection. It will definitely be worth watching as it matures.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I think the color change is normal; it looks like the tips have withered with age on the older tubercles.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Do the Lophophora ever bloom? DO they have flowers?




    interesting blog! Those cacti are really cool.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes they bloom - as illustrated by these videos and the pictures you can find e.g. here and here.

    ReplyDelete

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