One more flowering cactus of the summer past. I don't have many Gymnocalycium plants in my collection but find the ones I have quite interesting – especially the large flowers and the naked calyx are fascinating (the genus name Gymnocalycium comes from the Greek for "naked calyx"). 
Gymnocalycium calochlorum flower buds
I bought this Gymnocalycium calochlorum (Mina Clavero, Córdoba, Argentina) a couple of years ago and it has been growing in my coldhouse since. It is coping well in this environment and is showing off a wealth of flowers each summer.
Gymnocalycium calochlorum flower buds; close-up
The pale pink flowers with the burgundy throat are quite beautiful and almost hide the plant.
Flowering Gymnocalycium calochlorum
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I don't think I've seen a calochlorum with more than two flowers on the go, good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I have harvested one fruit from the plant and another is developing. I'm not absolutely sure about the first one but I know for certain that the second fruit is the result of self-pollination (I only have a few gymnos and no other plants were flowering when I hand pollinated the calochlorum flower using a cotton swab).
ReplyDeleteI'm not a very experienced Gymnocalycium grower and had expected the calochlorum to be self-sterile so the fruits are a happy surprise - I still have to see if the seeds are fertile, though ;-) Is self-fertility a common trait in Gymnocalycium?
I don't think so, both in my experience and from what I've read, few Gymno's seem to be self-fertile. Calochlorum may be an exception though, it seems to be one of those plants all too ready to produce seed pods when given half a chance.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying this. As mentioned, I only have a handful of gymnos, the G. calochlorum that is the subject matter of this post, a couple of G. chubutense, and two plants that I think are G. horstii. I would like to grow more Gymnocalycium but as I'm growing the majority of my plants in an unheated greenhouse in Denmark, they would need to be fairly hardy - do you by any chance know what species are among the most cold hardy?
ReplyDeleteMy plants have survived several winters in the cold house, except the chubutense that I bought earlier this year from Kakteen-Haage.