🌸 Desert.plants.passion / Rebutia hybrid
Five years ago, I got some Rebutia seeds from a friend Kika, who is also cactus enthusiast. She did not know the full name of the mother plant from which the seed was collected. The sawing was successful, I had many Rebutia plants grown from that seeds. But when they bloomed for the first time, I was surprised, the flowers were not the same color, and when I looked more carefully at the bodies, I could see that they differed by the length of the spines. I showed her photos of flowers and plants, and then she told me that they do not look like a mother plant at all! How did that happened?
She fertilizes her plants with a brush, without cleaning that brush while passing through the anthers and stigmas of different cacti species. In that way she is not actually getting pure seeds. Probably at the time when the seeds of this Rebutia hybrid was born, many different species of Rebutias were in flower at her place. Which species had crossed each other no one can ever know.
Most cactus growers tend to preserve plant seed purity so as to contribute to the conservation of species, because many cacti are endangered in nature. Likewise, I try to avoid crossing the species. Still, in this case, thanks to her improvidence, I'm glad I got some really beautiful mini gardens of Rebutias. Every spring I can hardly wait them to bloom!
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Thank you for your attention!
Some of my other cacti & other succulents stories:
Spring flowers (3)
Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus
Turbinicarpus valdezianus
Cacti spring flowers
Cacti collection waking up
If you are interested in reading about desert plants from my own growing experience fell free to follow and enjoy!
@andrijana
They are stunning!
Last year I tried to sow cacti for the first time and I was so happy to see them grow. None of them bloom yet, but they are doing great and growing fast.
That's wonderful that you have success with sowing cacti. I love to see those tiny green balls grow! :)