digitostigma

look what i got:


own roots Digitostigma/Astrophytum caput-medusae.

Nice score. Lucky bugger!

Nice work Lewis. A great plant.

kinda fat tubercles eh?
its supposed to be easy to grow... as easy as a myriostigma (apparently so.. well it BETTER be, it didn't break the bank at all or anything i just like it). just 99% of the time seen grafted so to speed it up and as insurance because it is viewed as being some ultra rare new discovery of mythical proportions.
now to wait a while for flowers then i can get some hybridisation done. could also try a tubercle graft but for some reason i somehow don't like the propect of taking the knife to it. needless to say i could just get some local seed and graft the seedlings like everyone else.

Well done Lewis - got to be happy with one that size. The rest of us will have to wait for our seed to grow.

lewis wrote:

p.s don't blame me, Betty told me to post it.

I can't write what I said, cause ladies don't swear ..................................and if you believe that you're crazy

Just hope I can get a few of my seedlings grafted and with a bit of luck they will go past yours in no time

Looks like the digito challenge is underway haha. Graftin or from seed, go for it people, get those babies crankin and make this lil plant a common one here in Au

my digi seeds are sown and Im keening waiting for them to pop through. have one lot of seeds through that were sown at same time so perhaps I'll not have long to wait. Lewis, did you get that one locally..?

Totally awesome Lewis, now fess up where did you get it,

parrotsheaven wrote:

Just hope I can get a few of my seedlings grafted and with a bit of luck they will go past yours in no time

Absolutely!

*Jelaously smiles*

Mine is tiny but coming many. 30 grafted and 10 own root ------

sown seed on 24/08/08, grafted seedling 09/09/08

complete seedling grafting and cut stock to align the height

excellent! yours will be the size of mine or bigger in a few months!
when they reach flowering size you can try some making some interesting hybrids with your already extensive astrophytum collection

Its an amazing looking plant. Seeing as it was disciovered so recently I suppose there hasnt been enough time to see how it goes making hybrids. Should make some pretty interesting ones though.

I read somewhere that it grew 'very fast' .. dunno how true this is.

asterias X caput-medusae seeds do exist, I have seen them for sale. Expensive too! So people have been doing a bit of it, still lots of work to go with this one I think.

My numbers have gone up by one recently

A bit of a late starter so 34 living from 40 seeds (two succumbed) I am happy with those figures

lewis
I understand caput-medusae can cross easily with myriostigam including khoyo and Onzuka.
I saw a seedling photo of Echinocactus texensis x caput-medusae.
Hanazono

EDIT: okay Digitostigma caput-medusae is not easy to cross with Astrophytum.
many international experts maintain it is not an Astrophytum.

digi is good for getting Astrophytum spp. to self..
all these strange seedlings which people boast as being hybrids
with digi do not seem to be the real deal.
they either look 100% on one of the parents
or possess variegation or atypical characteristics which are claimed
to be a result of hybridisation
true, hybrids often have unusual phenotypes (because they are not supposed to happen)
but realistically,
we are crossing normally self-sterile plants with themselves...inbreeding,
the digi/astro pollen induces self-fertilisation on the receiving plants behalf.
these offspring probably possess homozygous recessive genes. (and so aren't healthy)
added to this is that the seedlings are usually grafted onto very vigorous stocks like pereskiopsis
which only makes them look even less natural.

and the self-fertilisation (re: self-sterile plant to which totally unrelated plant pollen is applied)
it is a common phenomena with cacti.
foreign pollen facilitates agamospermy/ i.e. apomixis..
how exactly i am not sure,
interestingly it doesn't even need to be cacti pollen specifically;
even lilly and brugmansia pollen have also been known to work.

Wow I had no idea that it (Digito) had been taken so far! I certainly learn a lot of stuff off this site.

The chimeras are interesting. Has anyone ever heard if its possible to graft a third species onto a chimera and make a triple one?

Charlie wrote:

The chimeras are interesting. Has anyone ever heard if its possible to graft a third species onto a chimera and make a triple one?

well not that i know of but anything's possible in Italy + Japan. chimeras are generally an EXTREMELY rare event.
heres some more and good info:
http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/CHIMAERAS/Photo_gallery_chimaeras.htm

here you go Charlie:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://www.kaktusy.com.pl/pliki/kurioza/chimery.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddigitostigma%2Bx%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
one of the best freak pages ive ever seen theres a digi+astro ornatum chimera there.
theres also a crested digi under
'Gallery 4 - Form of Crested'
this site is insane!!

trigonus wrote:

Nice score. Lucky bugger!

Yeah!!


CP

I know a couple of people that Lewius knows that are experimenting with some different hybrids caput-medusae. I guess it will only be a matter of time with Astrophytums being such a favourite for hybridising.