Toumeya papyracantha

Got myself a new baby a couple of weeks ago and thought it was time I shared it with everyone.

You can see it has a pup emerging

Awsome Betty! I would like to see you and Lewis's for comparison, your's looks quite natural, being grafted.

Well done Betty, love the spines!

Nice score Betty! Have always been keen on those. Pretty hard to find though.

ah, one of my favourite cacti. Very healthy specimen. i'll have to get a pic of mine.

That's a different look. Where did you get it??

Thanks everyone I had never heard of it until Lewis mentioned his. Found this one on ebay, I bid on it but it finished very late and got outbid but luckily I got sent a second chance offer

Lewis I look forward to seeing your Toumeya. This one of mine is not very big at all I did not even notice the pup till I looked at the photos I took after I got it

I'll get a pic tomorrow Betty.
Toumeya papyracantha (syn. Sclerocactus papyracanthus) is a North American cactus native to New Mexico and Arizona. It can reputedly take temps of -25C in winter there, making it one of the most cold-hardy cacti, so Aus winters are unlikely to pose a threat to this plant. A close relative of the Pediocacti and Sclerocacti, which are more North American rarities . It is called the 'Grama-grass cactus' because its' long papery spines (hence the name T. papyracantha) provide excellent camouflage in the wild in its' grass habitat. It is rare in collections, usually grown grafted and very seldom seen on its own roots.

some info on this rather little-known plant:
http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/TOUMEYA/Toumeya_papyracantha/Toumeya_papyracantha/Toumeya_papyracantha.htm

here we go:



Its already starting to grow again.
i plan to re-graft some of the offsets and also try root a few down and grow them on their own roots.

Nice plant lewis!!!!

Great one Lewis, do you tie it to a stake ?
..............just lookin at the plant ties

Yes, it is staked...because it can't even hold itself up! it is really top-heavy. It is grafted on Trichocereus huascha stock.

Are you going to put it down when it warms up?

you mean degraft it? other than being top-heavy it seems quite happy on the stock. i think i am going to end up using it as a stock plant for offsets and seed. so watch out there may be a few more Toumeyas around by the end of next season . its already got some more tiny offsets forming. don't know about seed though, its definitely big enough to flower (^15cms tall) but i don't know if it will do so.

Not degraft but to cut the stock.........putting the Toumeya close to the soil. I will be doing this with my grafted ariocarpus this spring. Cutting the peres back to about 2inches and rerooting it.

Like this digi has been done Cutting stock

nah i am going to keep the stock the same height, for now anyway. I'm just happy the Toumeya is already waking up now! new offsets are starting to form on some of the areoles, it's all green in the middle of the main head and new red spines are also forming on some of the bigger offsets! this plant seems to have pretty early emergency from dormancy.

i am now stocking up on grafting stocks of all sorts ready to for some propagation, i want as many as possible

hit me up if you want some T. spachianus for stocks Lewis.

^^ just did so