BCSS - Forum

I’d be grateful for an ID please.

Cleistocactus winteri ssp winteri, I reckon.

Al Laius wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 2:15 pm I’d be grateful for an ID please. F0F311D3-FD65-4263-92E4-EB56280E3D21.jpeg

That's a lovely plant

I used to grow Hildewintera Aureispina which I think is also seen as Cleistocactus Winteri but usually the flowers are more spaced out along the older growth and just on one side of the stem rather than all around recent growth. Any chance of a photo of the open flowers. If not Hildewintera then probably a hybrid.

Stuart

Wouldn't the very upright nature of this particular plant also suggest a hybrid as the species is usually sprawling or pendant?

I agree about the spacing of the flowers, perhaps to do with stem angle.
I don't find ssp winteri to be particularly pendant - mine grew upright to a height of about 20" before starting to lean then topple. There's a great photo of its habit in Rowley's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents (p109 in my edition) if you have it, with stems at all angles, which might be affected by whether the surface it's growing out of is vertical or horizontal.

Phil_SK wrote: ↑Sun Oct 11, 2020 6:57 pm I don't find ssp winteri to be particularly pendant - mine grew upright to a height of about 20" before starting to lean then topple.

Interesting variation in individual plants. I don't wish to embarrass it, but my own plant clearly has considerable difficulty with achieving any significant 'verticality'. Maybe it needs some additional trace elements in its feed.

I just took a photo of the whole potful and as you can see there is no sign of any droopiness. The flowering stem measures 77cms (2ft 6 ins) and is heading upwards.

I’ll go with the hybrid theory.

This plant was obtained from the leftovers at the late Bill Maddam’s greenhouse after the auction.

Al

Bill Maddams was unlikely to have any Hildewintera hybrids in his collection so I would work on the basis that it is a species. Please post the flower image when you can, that might help. He could well have grown something like Corryocactus, but I am not aware of species with such spiny stems. Or what about a very thin-stemmed Seticereus/Borzicactus/Cleistocactus icosagonus?

My first reaction was that it's an Haageocereus.