Turbinicarpus

I haven't come across this genus until I went to my first meeting at BCSS. A gentleman, from one of the Medway towns in Kent, came along with his plants, various pictures & spoke for a couple of hours. I was quite surprised to hear some of the things he said & those will be mentioned.

The cacti in this genus are quite small & slow growing. The gentleman said he rarely waters them & together with things I've read, it made sense. They often become rot-prone & that is usually based on too much water. One of the books said that many are grafted & then grow quicker but this gentleman didn't have any that were.

Many of them come from Mexico & some of them a funny shapes.

This Turbinicarpus krainzianus v. minimus looks, to me, like a golf ball on a tee. Books say that it produces white flowers however see the pictures below. The picture, without flowers, was shot in 2003 with the one with flowers was shot in 2005.

The cactus is usually solitary with the average temperature no less than 10 degrees centigrade but than survive a few hours of it being -4.

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