Turbinicarpus

Turbinicarpus lilinkeuiduus blooming in Hamilton, Ontario, October 3rd, 2005.

The genus Turbinicarpus is a group of miniature cacti that don't exceed about 3 or 4 cm in diameter in the wild. Cultivated plants can be larger and may offset and cluster unnaturally making a much larger plant. Never the less this is the sort of group where a collector could easily fit an impressive collection of the various species on a single windowsill. It seems many closely related forms appear in habitat and many have been given invalid names as illustrated by the long list of names in Kohres seed catalogue. The plant in the photo is exactly one of these plants started from Kohres seed with the odd name Turbinicarpus lilinkeuiduus which is no doubt invalid and just a form of something else like schmiedickeanus. My plant has been putting out a continuous stream of flowers for several weeks now and was blooming again today, in Hamilton, October 3rd, 2005.