Fill me in

Hiya all,

Need an education as to what the hell is harbouring in/on one of my cylindropuntias. (If you want to ID the species of the cactus while you're at it that would be a bonus.)

The strange growth came with the plant and usually sits on top looking like a black lump. When we get a fair amount of rain, the 'thing' enlarges and looks like a mutant slug or something  , only to shrink back into the not-so-innocent looking lump the day the rain stops.

Don't tell me it's a flower ... or maybe it is but not of the cactus.

What is it????

Still working on uploading photos, but someone might know from the description. I'll have another try after a bit of research.

Hmmmm you might have something growing inside the plant.
If its a black lump i would say its nothing to do with the plant, if it was green it could be monstrose/ new growth, but if it reacts with the rain and shrinks after, its obviously something inside or growing on it, me personally i would cut the affected area off and bin it.
Not sure if you wanted to do that or not, i have a few cylindropuntias i could give you if the plants fails/dies or has an alien rip out of it!!!, Not sure what type you have, a photo would help identifying what you might have.

Cheers rickyscactus,

I'm pretty sure it is an alien of some sort. It's been there since I got the plant in question many months ago. It hasn't seemed to travel to other nearby plants thankfully.

I think it's a cylindropuntia fulgida and I've got a few daughter plants growing well which haven't displayed any similar anomaly.

Thanks for the offer of replacement. maybe we could do a trade off of some plants anyway. I've got a few different opuntioid species as well as many others and I'm always keen to expand my collection or disseminate the genetics of my precious babies to others.

Catch up soon. **A

This whole thing seems very strange. If it has been there for many months then it seems like it would not be some dangerous infection.

It doesn't seem animal because they wouldn't be growing and shrinking in rain, and it doesn't seem plant either because it doesn't fit any of the parasitic plants I know can infect cacti. Fungal or bacterial seem most likely, perhaps one that is being inhibited by the plant to stop its spread. It might even be something living on the plant and just using it for support, like a lichen or something.

Has the plant grown near the point of interest? Are there spines coming out of it?

No spines coming out of it. It's on the vertice of a crest. It might be slowing the growth but I won't really be able to tell until I repot the plant since the plants I bought in that batch are rather waterlocked, and don't show much growth responsiveness until I repot them. Amazing the difference repotting makes, I've tended others of that batch with no response and repotted them only to watch them just about jump out of their pots with new growth.
People keep recommending that if theirs they'd trash the thing, plant and all as a preventative measure but it's since infected me in a way, I need to know what it is or I'll be forever wondering. I may know more when I repot it next season if it survives 'til then. I'll figure how to put up a picture by then too but I'm pressed for time a bit lately.

Short version of how to upload images would be good. I know I've seen it in the past somewhere so if you can direct me cheers.

If I had it I would not cut it off since it doesn't seem to be harmful. Or if I did then I'd keep a good amount of it and plant it to perpetuate it.

For uploading photos, you need the photo to be on the www somewhere, in a publicly available place. You can't upload directly from a computer as far as I know. Once you have it up somewhere then to include it in a post you click on the second icon from the left of the fourth grey box of icons from the left of those icons above where your writing in the post goes (the "Insert an image" icon). Then you paste the image URL of your photo under "URL:" and (optionally) the size you want it to be [under "Width (optional):" and "Height (optional):"] in the box that appears.

Thanks Cereoid,

hopefully I can repeat the process of posting an image and this wasn't just a one off but I've got low battery and and will have to get back to it later. Glad I'm not the only one who wouldn't kill it just because it's unknown. It might be a nice oddity to add to my collection. Catch up after I recharge.

I don't like the look of that!! It looks like its part of the plant and it's rotting.

If that was my plant I would cut whatever it is off and see how far down it goes, if its rotten.
Depending on what it is it might go into the plant a little bit/a lot or slowly making its way through the plant.

I have had a few rotten plants, once they get going they are hard to stop.

The plant should keep growing, maybe in the future the plant will be ok, but if you have cuttings already from the plant and are not too concerned about it, leave it.

Hope this helps.

Is this its expanded (rainy) state or its shrunken (dry) state?

This shot is after it has had rain but it's already shrinking back down a bit. You can see the crust on the top of the slimy part.

I'll take one of the shrunken state in the next week or so. It's just a black crusty lump when dry and it repeats this cycle. I'd very much like to know what it is.

I haven't seen anything like this on any other plants, cacti or other. I't not rot, but I don't know what it is.

Thanks for the run-through on uploading, I was probably being impatient when it was in process and accidentally cancelled the operation before it had finished.