Another one with tough to get at seed - Ortegocactus macdougalli

I thought this might be of interest. I was lucky enough to have two Ortego's flower at the same time early last season and so got to work with the paint brush. It appeared I was successful in pollinating them and so from then to now I've been watching and hoping for some kind of fruit to emerge, but it turns out it's another plant that keeps it seed deep down within it's axials and makes it tough for any critter (including us) to get at...
So after watching the cover of the pod dry, today I decided to see if I could get to the seed. The cap came of reasonably easily and you can see the seed sitting in the recess in the plant. I gingerly picked out the seed with a piece of hooked fine wire and now have enough for next years sowing. I just hope I haven't damaged the plant in any way doing it. I've actually brought them inside under the heating to hopefuly dry out any scratches or damage. Fingers crossed ! And hopefully the seed is viable!
The first plant -

And a closer look at the seed in the second plant...

Oh wow... that's a very cool plant.

How many seeds were you able to get?

good work navajoa, this stuff is all new to me and i must admit i have no experience with ortegocactus. i will keep an eye on this thread to see how you go so keep us posted. can you show us a pic of the seed?

is it possible that the seed will come out by itself? could you possibly make a paper catcher that surrounds the plant for the seeds to be cought into or do they need to be dug out with some sort of tool, it would be a real shame if you damaged the plant.

do you have many of this species?

regards
Darren

Thanks guys.

Lachy, I probably ended up with around 20 or so seeds I think, there weren't a whole lot in each pod, and I can't really be sure I got them all.

The paper catcher isn't a bad idea Darren, but I couldn't really find any info to say that the plant does eject the seed at all, so it might have been a long wait. And knowing my luck, ants or something would knock them off !
This will be a bit of a test, if the seed is viable then great. If not I'll know it's meant to stay in there longer!
Don't think I've damaged the plants, but time will tell. I only have a couple of adult plants but do have some other seedlings coming on....