Green and Brown

[DaveW]

Guess this is a posed subject so goes here. I have not posted for a while so will risk cactus as there are not many species with green (well yellowish-green) flowers which is what the name viridiflorus means.

Echinocereus viridiflorus



But some varieties also have brownish flowers too:

Echinocereus viridiflorus v. standleyi



The above seedlings were set in 2005 and are about 2 inches high.

DaveW

[Roy Patience]

Dave,

These are great. You've done a good job capturing the colors and shading of the petals.

I have never seen flowers this color before. Most of my cacti are blooming or about to bloom, but they are mostly fairly common colors.

Roy

[DaveW]

The E. viridiflorus and E. chloranthus group have greenish or brownish flowers. There is an attractively spined new subspecies called Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp. canus appearing in some seed lists. Here is my seedling of it, but it has not flowered yet.



See also:-

http://www.huntington.org/BotanicalDiv/ ... 06-01.html

Note the dimorphism in that the seedling is at first woolly like a miniature Cephalocereus senilis (see all the woolly hairs at the bottom of the plant) but then after about a year the adult spination is produced as seen above.

E. viridiflorus comes from Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas & Wyoming, so is fairly widespread but being a small low growing plant is often overlooked.

They are quite easy from seed and will flower in two to three years. All the plants shown were sown in 2005 and the one above is is the tallest and about two and a quarter inches high.

DaveW

[augusthouse]

Thanks for the images and detailed info DaveW.

I enjoyed their 'story'. Grown from seed and they reward you like this - who could ask for anything more.

Craig

[beetleman]

Excellent images Dave. last year I set up a small winter hardy cactus garden In New Hampshire (yes, in the northeast snow country) and one of the species was Echinocereus viridiflorus . It over wintered very well and has about 10 flower buds getting ready to open in about a week. The only thing I did was cover it in the fall to help let them dry out for the winter. At one time they had about 5' of snow on them due to drifting.

[DaveW]

I believe E. viridiflorus is hardy. Main trouble in the UK is the damp more than the cold because most cacti like a dry cold, not our freeze thaw freeze thaw type of winters. Snow in fact forms an insulating blanket over plants.

DaveW