The characteristic differences of a cactus from other plants, the rules for growing telocactus at home, recommendations for reproduction, diseases and pests that arise during care, curious notes, species. Telocactus (Thelocactus) is part of one of the oldest and most numerous families called Cactaceae. This genus includes 10-13 species, but the variety of Telocactus bristle-thorny (Thelocactus (Hamatocactus) setispinus) is very popular among flower growers. This plant can rightfully consider the territory of North America as its native lands, while Thelocactus is often found both in the mountainous regions of Mexico and the state of Texas (USA), and on the plateaus of these places. Most of the species prefer to "settle" on rocky soils with limestone outcrops, as well as among tall grass or in thickets of bushes, giving openwork shade.
The plant bears its scientific name because of the type of its shoots, which are divided into hills (tubercles) of large sizes, and since the Latin term "Thelo" translates as "nipple or tubercle", it is clear that the description practically "hits the spot" …
Telocactus belongs to succulent plants, which in their parts can store moisture for a rainless period. The entire surface of the shoots is covered with a thick layer of epidermal cells. Their upper part is soaked through with vegetable wax, which does not allow the liquid to evaporate too intensively from the stem. The size of this cactus is small, with indicators in height reaching 15 cm with an average stem diameter of about 8 cm. It is these small values that contribute to the popularity of Thelocactus and its cultivation in home collections. The shape of the stems is spherical or slightly flattened, but with age, depriving the plant of decorativeness begins to lengthen too much, and therefore flower growers prefer to replace the old cactus with a young specimen.
Often, a cactus has multiple thorns, divided into radial and central ones. The first ones number up to 30 units, reaching 3 cm in length. They are tightly pressed to the surface of the stem. The number of second spines can vary from one to two pairs. All spines are colored yellow, red, yellow-brown or dark brown. The number of ribs is small, they are not very pronounced and often do not appear at all. All shoots are separated by large tubercles, most often distributed in a spiral order. It is they who form the wavy ribs of the plant.
Flower tubercles are also present on the stems, with a groove at the apex, more or less pronounced. Almost from the central part of the plant, buds arise and open, which are placed on very young papillae. The sizes of flowers are rather large, with a bell-shaped corolla, daytime. The number of stigmas on the ovary is usually few; their sinuses are uncovered. In full disclosure, the diameter of the flower can reach 6 cm. The flower petals are bright yellow with a reddish pharynx. But some varieties differ only in flowers of yellow, white or pink tones. The flowering process takes the period from late spring to September.
After flowering, dry fruits ripen, which begin to crack from the hole in the base. The shape of the fruit is spherical, the color is bright red. Fruits can persist for a long time on telocactus. Inside there are black seeds, with a somewhat lumpy surface and large hilum (this is the usually called the place (scar) in which the seed is attached in the fruit) growing at the base. However, cross-pollination will be required to get fruit. In a room, a florist uses a soft brush to transfer pollen from one flower to another. The birds of those places love to feast on seeds of telocactus, if they do not have time to germinate.
The plant is rather non-capricious and not particularly demanding in care, for which flower growers love to grow it. If simple rules are followed, Thelocactus will decorate not only living rooms, but also offices or greenhouses.
Rules for growing telocactus at home
- Lighting and selection of a place for a pot. Since in nature Thelocactus prefers to grow in open areas or in light shade, they put a pot with it on the windowsill of the south, east or west window. However, shading is needed on the south window on a summer afternoon. This is due to the fact that there is no natural movement of air masses in the rooms, and the cactus can get sunburn. At the northern location, the plant will need constant lighting.
- Content temperature. To make telocactus comfortable, it is recommended to constantly, in addition to winter, maintain heat indicators in the range of 23-28 degrees. But when autumn comes, the temperature is gradually reduced to a range of 10-15 units, since in natural conditions the cactus begins a period of rest.
- Air humidity when growing the plant in summer, it should remain moderate, but the cactus should not be sprayed. However, Thelocactus can also tolerate dry air in a room, although it loves moist soil. If the weather is too hot, then you need to often ventilate the room.
- Watering. Usually watering is carried out during the period of vegetation activity and it is better when they fall in the evening hours. Water is used only soft and warm with a temperature of about 22-26 degrees. If watering has not been carried out for a long time and the soil is very dry, then it is recommended to moisten it strongly once, and then adhere to a moderate regime. From mid-autumn to April, the soil in the pot is practically not moistened, but complete drying of the soil is prohibited. Temperature and lighting levels must be kept low. When the weather is rainy in the spring and summer, they try to irrigate a little less often.
- Fertilizers for Thelocactus. It is recommended to support the plant with nutrients during the growing season only once, using preparations intended for cacti and succulents in a very low concentration. All due to the fact that the plant will have enough minerals in the soil.
- Transfer and selection of soil. For telocactus, you can change the pot every 2-4 years, but young specimens should be replanted annually. A new flowerpot is selected shallow, but wide. In this case, the best guideline will be the size of the root system, it should fit completely there and no more. Usually, the transplanting time coincides with the exit of the plant from the dormant period. You can provide drainage at the bottom of the pot. The substrate is selected with an acidity of pH 5-6 (slightly acidic), light and nutritious. You can buy a potting potting potting pot for succulents and cacti at a flower shop, or you can create potting soil yourself. Garden soil, humus, peat chips are introduced into it in a ratio of 2: 1: 2. A little coarse-grained river sand or gravel should also be added there, providing a drainage layer.
Recommendations for breeding telocactus
Basically all varieties of Thelocactus can be propagated by seed. When the fruit is fully ripe, then it must be removed and dried for some time. Then the seeds are removed and planted in moist soil or peat-sand mixture. The pot is placed in a mini-greenhouse - a piece of glass is placed on top of the container or a flowerpot with crops is wrapped in plastic wrap. It is recommended to carry out daily ventilation. When the seedlings grow well, they are dived into small individual pots and transplants are carried out as they grow. The signal for this is the appearance of the first spines and the rudiments of young stems on the top of the seedlings.
If “babies” (lateral shoots) have formed next to the stem of the mother plant, then they can be planted in peat-sandy soil. They take root pretty quickly. Rooting of lateral shoots obtained after growth points have been removed on an adult plant is also carried out. This is because lateral stems generally do not appear, and the stem itself almost never branches. The cuttings are dried until a film is formed on the cut and planted in moistened river sand or soil for cacti. Shoots are rooted in a mini-greenhouse by placing a glass container or a plastic bottle with a cut bottom on top. The latter option will facilitate ventilation - the cover is removed from the neck. If the soil in the pot is dry, it is watered.
Diseases and pests arising from the care of telocactus
Although a cactus is not affected by pests, it happens that a spider mite attacks it. Treatment with insecticides is then recommended. If the substrate is too waterlogged, then root and stem decay may begin, and with a large drying of the earthy coma, buds and flowers begin to fall off. Flowering is not observed when the dormant period is too warm (winter) or insufficient lighting.
Curious notes about telocactus, photo
The plant was first named by the German botanist Karl Moritz Schumann (1851-1904) when he described it in 1898 to designate a subgenus of cacti of the genus Echinocactus, which is often called the "hedgehog cactus". Before all the varieties were brought together into a single genus Telocactus, they were reckoned among such genera as Gamatocactus or Hamatocactus, Gymnocactus, Ferocactus and Echinocactus already mentioned here. However, then, thanks to two botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859-1934, American botanist and taxonomy) and Joseph Nelson Rose (1862-1928 also a botanist from America) in 1922 Telocactus was given the status of an independent genus.
After Thelocactus has been acquired, like other representatives of the flora, it is recommended to place it separately from other domestic plants in the so-called "quarantine". This is because the new "resident" of the house may have pests or other pathogens, which at first glance are not always easy to identify. It is also advisable to transplant, since the substrate in which flowers are usually transported may not be suitable for the cactus. After changing the pot and the soil in it, it is not recommended to water telocactus for at least 5 days and put it in a place with diffused dim lighting. So for a week or two, the time for adaptation of the plant is waiting.
It is important to remember that such patterns of the green world can be followed with great care. Since not all people are suitable for plants that have thorns or in general properties to accumulate moisture. Usually, representatives of the Scorpio sign, which is ruled by the fiery and thorny Mars, are marked with love for cacti, although it is a sign of the water element.
Types of telocactus
Telocactus bicolor (Thelocactus bicolor) is also called "The Pride of Texas". This variety is the most common in indoor cultivation. His native lands stretch from the central and northern Mexican states to the Rio Grande River, which flows in the US state of Texas. It prefers to grow in open areas, but feels great among many grasses and undersized shrubs growing in dry habitats. The shape of the stems of the cactus is spherical or in the form of short cylinders. Usually a large number of spines are formed in areoles located on the surface of the stems, dissected into tubercles. The plant got its specific name because of the color of the thorns, which is always two colors.
The flowering of the cactus is its real advantage, the flowers bloom in large sizes, with pinkish-purple petals. The corolla, when fully expanded, reaches 10 cm in diameter when the flower is formed on an adult specimen. When the fruits ripen, they begin to open at the base, allowing some of the seeds to fall onto the soil and germinate until the birds reach them. Therefore, with the maternal specimen, there is always a rather heap and dense accumulation of young shoots of different ages (children). But such a spectacle can be seen only in those places where the collection of plants is prohibited, in natural conditions there are no such colonies due to the constant ruin of cactus collectors.
In indoor culture, it is customary to grow many hybrid species, characterized by bright yellow spines, tricolor color of petals in flowers, and the like.
Telocactus haxedroforus (Thelocactus hexaedrophorus). This species is distributed in Mexico, covering San Luis Potosi and Nuevo Leon, as well as Tamaulipos, Zacatecas. It has a solitary body, flattened-spherical to moderately cylindrical. Its diameter reaches 15 cm, the color is gray-green or bluish-gray-green. If the plant is imported, then there is a grayish-white bloom on it. The number of ribs is 8–13; they are completely divided into tubercles. Their outlines are strong or with angularity, at the base of their contours resemble a 6-gon. Placement of tubercles in dense spirals; ribs on older specimens are strongly pronounced.
Spines growing in the center 0–1, reaching 4–4.5 cm in length, spaced apart, but usually they do not exist. The number of radial spines is 2–9, and their placement is in the form of a cross. The length is about 1-3, 5 cm and a little more. Often, a thorn appearing at the top is somewhat weaker and shorter, while the general symmetry of all others is broken. This feature does not appear in other species. All spines are subulate, even, only occasionally with a bend or curvature, often twisted. Their color is from red to reddish-brown or can be yellow with red parts, later acquiring a grayish-brown or gray tint.
In the flower, the color of the petals can be white, pink or yellow, including various shades of these tones. The diameter of the flower reaches 3.5–8 cm with a corolla length of about 3–6 cm. Anthers protruding outward of a golden yellow tone, the stamen legs take on a whitish tint. The color of the column and stigma varies from white to pale yellow.
Telocactus lophothele (Thelocactus lophothele). It occurs naturally near the city of Chihuahua (Mexico). The body of a cactus is single and can, in natural conditions, create a semblance of bushes. The shape of the stems is spherical, but short-cylindrical at maturity, not exceeding 25 cm in height with a diameter of 12 cm. The color is grayish-green. The number of ribs on the stem varies from 15 to 30 units. Their arrangement is spiral, the ribs are divided into tubercles, taking an oblong or more or less conical shape. There are narrow bridges in the vertical plane between them.
All spines have a thorn-like shape; it is difficult to divide them into radial and central ones. Their number reaches seven, where two pairs are stronger and more elongated, arranged like a cross. Those that grow in the upper part are more straightened, grow spaced and can be considered central. The spines 1–3 located in the upper part are shorter and weaker, directed strictly upward, and are radial. The color of the thorns is from amber-yellow to dark red-brown, later becoming grayish or gray-brown.
When blooming, buds bloom with white, yellowish-white, yellow or pinkish-red petals of various shades. On those petals that grow inside the perianth, there is often a darker stripe in the center. When opened, the flower reaches 5–6 cm with a length of about 4–6 cm. The color of the anthers resembles sulfur - yellowish, the stamen legs are whitish.
