Some new euphorbias

I was after an Obesa at the CSSA show yesterday and I grabbed this one without looking at the tag.
The plant label said "Symmetrica" When I had a look on Google they looked slightly different but then I couldn't tell the difference between the Obesa and Obesa Symmetrica anyway after staring at it for ten minutes
I had no idea they offset. That's quite a large one.

Of course if it is a symmetrica now I need another Obesa as well...

A little Cristata

And a Valida. Which for some reason I thought was called melaformis. This one's a lovely colour

And next to the one I got two years ago. Which is getting to be quite an old man

my obesa is so old it has become a bit elongated, but never have i had an offset. i am fairly sure that obesa is solitary. and if it was a freak offset, i cant imagine a whole ring of freaks at once. when mine flowers next time i might have to quarinteen it for pollination...

From what I was reading obesas do become columnar at an advanced age, but a symmetrica does not. I hadn't even heard of them until yesterday.
This is all I could find on them

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/EUPHORBIA/Euphorbia_obesa/Euphorbia_obesa_symmetrica/Euphorbia_obesa_symmetrica.htm

and it has purplish banding, which mine does not. I might go and check out the next CSSA meeting so I will ask the vendor about it

a piece of advice i can offer, as i think yours is a subspecies of e. obesa, is to be VERY sparing with the water. mine gets a drink maybe once in 3 months. they are very intollerant of getting soggy.

will try and put up a pic for you.

I'd love to see an advanced one. I don't think this one will get any bigger. I'm pretty curious to see how the offsets will go. I just repotted everything yesterday and gave all of them a bit of Seasol so i will hold off on watering that one for a bit.

will get myself organised enough to do a pic for you. mine is about 9cm across and has flowered several times. they are very slow growers... if you are interested in some swaps i am happy to share... PM me if you feel the urge.

Oh flowers, now that would be interesting. I'm wondering if this one is going to flower soon, I'm certainly spending a good deal of time hovering around it each morning

they are very small, maybe 3mm across and yellowish, star shaped, on a short stem. they dry up in a couple of days so you have to be quick.

i have had words with my obesa and it promises to flower for me soon, but until then here it is without any sign of a flower. it is 7cm tall.

That is just stunning! Very healthy looking, congratulations mate, hopefully it gives you some love back soon!
How long have you had that, diddi?

~Kandahar

about 7 years i guess. it hardly seems to grow, i havent ever repotted it i dont think, but it is very alive and suddenly bursts into flower at least twice a year.

The only available Euphorbia I have noticed around my way are the everyday one that Bunnings sells. Frustrating!

well, a year has passed and only now has my e.obesa flowered. the heat has knocked the buds around and so without further ado: here it is!



and here is something else to get any euphorbia lovers interested. (id needed as the tag has fallen victim to UV and disintegrated.) the leaves are about 10cm long.

Nice female you have there, which is always good, as they are rarer than males (a lot of sellers keep the females!) Not sure on the other one, will yell out if I see it in my books...

As for obesa vs symmetrica, there isn't a whole lot of difference - symmetrica's just appear a little more squat or flatter. Truth be know they're probably one and the same... As I understand it both can have the purple banding as that is more a product of the amount of sun the plant is getting than anything else...

Valida vs Meloformis - again these are probably just variations of the same plant...

I didn't know that they were gender specific. a number of my e. fruit easily - so are they crosses or are they bisexual? I don't have any books on euphorbia that have that sort of detail.

Yes, a lot (but not all) of the Euphorbias have seperate sexes - in your pictures you'll see that there's no pollen, were it male, the flowers would look like this. If you're plant is setting seed in the absence of another male obesa, it's most likely crossing with something else -


IMG_4155a by Navajoa, on Flickr