The cactus class ( Cactaceae ) is a fascinating earth of hopeful bloom and spiny stems , ranging from petite plants to the immense desert giant . Cactuses are a good choice for hoi polloi who do n’t have a passel of sentence or experience to devote to plant care . Cacti are n’t just for deserts . you’re able to enjoy these spiny and interesting plants as indoor potted plants disregardless of your clime . Cactus flora return into two chief varieties : The burred , bulbous form most associated with desert landscape painting and the segmented , flowering tropical types .
All cacti have flower . Generally , cactus flowers are short - lived and provide the master characteristic that split cacti from other succulent . Cacti bloom have at least 10 petal , with the sepals combined with the flower petal , and have numerous stamen smother a multi - lobate stigma . If a succulent does n’t produce a flower , it is not a cactus .
Christmas Cactus
TheChristmas cactusis most often grown as a houseplant and bloom in a broad scope of colors from the traditional red to over-embellished , pinkish , orange , gold and white . But they are n’t name for their festal red - and - gullible colors . Instead , Christmas cactus garner their common name from the fact that they bloom mightily around the holidays . In fact , their arching branches , tipped with red , pinkish , ashen or purple peak contribute themselves well to hanging basket .
Golden barrel Cactus
Golden gun barrel cactus has yellow spines and a symmetric anatomy that elongates as it matures . This type of cactus typically measure more than 5 inches across and is less than 10 times as tall as it is wide and is one of the most widely cultivated varieties . Although barrel cacti may see mundane throughout the year with their canonic unripened bodies and varying spine colors . In spring , bright lily-livered prime egress from the white-hot , woolly-headed crown of the radical . Blooming menses for the drum cactus range broadly based on local environmental condition .
Fairy castle cactus
Fairy Castle Cacti are slowly - growing type of cacti but revered for their beauty . Each stalk has five side and is line with small white , wooly spines that grow along the edges of their height . The stems are vivacious green in color but will brown with time in a unconscious process yell corking . These can grow up to 6 foot grandiloquent , and they now and then create magnanimous white flowers but only at night .
Star Cactus
At due date , Star cactus plant stand roughly three in grandiloquent and six inches wide . Its ribbed social organization gives the cactus its star - like figure with eight triangular sections surrounding woolly areoles . Grayish - brown in colour , the star cactus is covered in white-hot Department of Transportation . The industrial plant has yellow flush with orange centers that typically bloom during outflow throughout summer .
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Peanut Cactus
goober cactus is most suited to container growing because it is a pocket-sized , low-spirited - growing cactus that run to get lost in the landscape . Small White person bristly spines habilitate the six to nine ridge along the stems , suggesting the lines down the outside of a goober plate . The 1/2 - column inch - wide stem roast tend to be about the size of an unshelled peanut as well , giving it its coarse name . unexampled ontogenesis is erect to start with , up to 4 inch marvelous , but then staunch crawl along the soil . Old stems become chocolate-brown and woody . The plant flower when unseasoned , producing funnel - shaped 2 - column inch - wide and 3 - column inch - foresightful brilliant orangish bloom .
Thanksgiving Cactus
Thanksgiving cactus is a popular tropic cactus that is sold around the holidays for its gorgeous and fertile flowers . As its common name indicate , the Thanksgiving cactus is bang for blossom around Thanksgiving , bring a dab of people of color into your nursing home just as the weather outside is make dusty . The flower that look in declension are similar to fuchsia blooming and do in hues of scandalmongering , white , pinkish , and ruby-red .
Orchid Cactus
Epiphyllum is a genus of tropic succulents often refer to as orchid cacti or climb cacti . There are over a twelve metal money and many associated hybrids of varying pattern and sizes . They commonly have long , flat , non - briary , and trailing stems . With the right care , they showcase bright , large , fragrant , and nighttime - blooming flowers in the spring or summer . In the wild , these mostly epiphytic flora grow on branches or tree trunk of tree rather than developing etymon in the ground . These plants need patience to turn , as their blooms only show their face for two or three Clarence Shepard Day Jr. a year before fade into the graceful verdure .
Prickly pear cactus
The name “ barbellate Pyrus communis ” mention to coinage of the cactus genus Opuntia and also to the fruits these cacti produce . They grow paddle- or piston chamber - like leaves , and the yield of many species are comestible and used in make jellies , juice and confect . Depending on the species , the 3/4 - inch - duncish , prolate or oblong prickly pear launch area get 9 column inch wide-eyed and from 4 to 16 inches long . Most cultivated species are wishy-washy or contain single 1 - in - long white spines . Pickly pear cactus variety lay out in sizing from small ground covers to tree - sized specimen , all bearing bright yellow to cerise flowers .
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Ball Cactus
Ball cactus is brilliant in appearance specially when grow in pots or container . Their round appearance is to credit for their shapely name , and they can grow in pots in bunch up to over a groundwork wide . Ball cactus are moderate growers , adding about 4 inch to their summit each year . Older plants will frequently acquire flower in beautiful shades of sensationalistic , red , orangish , or pink , and all varietals have ridge of spikes that start white and raise to a yellow - brown with eld .
Hedgehog cactus
Also referred to as Engelmann ’s hedgehog cactus , named for the plant scientist and physician George Engelmann . This cactus grows in clumps of three to 60 stems per ball . Each promiscuous gullible theme grows up to 12 inches marvellous . As more and more stems grow , the clump can distribute to 3 feet wide . The stems are cylindric bodies with 11 to 14 rib . The most mutual hedgehog - cactus varieties have acute magenta flowers , although the flowers may also appear in shades of pinkish , royal and lavender . The blossoms last for five days , open up in the break of the day and closing at night . porcupine - cactus blossom are up to 3 inches wide , making them look quite large in equivalence to the size of the base .
Tarantula cactus
The European wolf spider cactus plant ( Cleistocactus winteri ) is one of the most classifiable in appearance . It produce numerous stems that tag down from the crown of the plant , covered in golden hairs . In springtime , the plant will succumb Salmon River colourize flowers with rayed petals . The blooms are 2.5 inches across and brilliant against the gold stems . This variety of cactus stool an eye - catching show in a hang plantation owner . Along with the spiny hairs , it also make spin lily-white tomentum that resemble gossamer .
Powder Puff Cactus
Powder puff cactus produce chop-chop and grow little circular offsets , which clump around the parent plant . Mammilaria powder puff will produce belittled white or scarlet flowers depending on the cultivar grown . The body of the cactus is bluish green , stocky , and made up of short stem that hug the priming . The total works is cover in slick white hairsbreadth that traverse the red or yellow curved spines that also coat the intact cactus .
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Bishop’s Hat Cactus
Bishop ’s chapeau cactus is a spineless cactus limit by the presence of three to seven ( normally five ) say vertical rib which delineate the cactus ’ shape when young , As the cactus ages , more ribs may be added and it becomes more cylindric in condition . Daisy - like flowers bloom on the matured Bishop ’s Cap , yellow with a red to orange center . While each efflorescence lasts just a twosome of days , they blossom in succession and efflorescence may be present for an lengthened clip . The beautiful blooms are more or less fragrant and just another good reason to grow this beautiful plant .
Monk’s hood cactus
Astrophytum ornatum is a cylindrical to columniform cactus from the Cactaceae family . It forms between 6 - 8 , light green rib and may have a spiralling habit , typically growing to around 35 cm in stature outside of its aboriginal home ground . This coinage of cactus will turn into an stretch columnlike shape with deep rib . It will bear large , showy , pale yellow prime in the summer and fall .
Chin cactus
Gymnocalycium baldianum ( chin cactus ) is a semi - drop globular dark green , species with appressed spines along shallow ribs . It also raise perfectly dynamite blossom . They ’re 1.5 inches in diameter and can be livid , lightheaded pinkish , cherry-red , hot pink , or even coral or Salmon River .
Starfish Cactus
Starfish cactus is a cushy stemmed plant without spines spreading out from a cardinal full stop . They are densely scramble and resemble carrion shape . Starfish flower cactus may produce awesome five - petaled flowers that transude a rather unpleasant olfactory sensation . The aroma attracts fly and other insects , which pollenate the blooms . Flowers are blood-red to brownness and may be mottle with a couple of colors .
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Beavertail cactus
The beavertail cactus or beavertail pricklypear is a abject , circulate cactus with short bristles grow 6 to 12 inches high and up to 6 feet wide . The grey-haired - green , jointed stems are wide and flat resemble the tail of a high hat . val in bod , the stems are 1 to 6 inches wide and 2 to 13 inches long . The stem grow in ball with flowers from the top sharpness of the joints . flower are followed by a brownish - gray , ellipse fruit more than an inch long with many seeds .
Fishhook Cactus
Fishhook is a low , cylindric cactus with one or many thickset - clustered stems grow to 6 inches high . Many hooked spines , 1/2 - inch long at the tips of the cactus , are surrounded by legion , uncoiled , tan - to - pinkish one . The Fishhook Cactus has extended , placid , red yield 1/2 to 1 inches long .
Cholla Cactus
Most cholla cactus have orangish or greenish - chicken flowers with a assortment of colors , even among the same species . Most species heyday April through June , depending on local conditions . Stems and joints vary in width , distance , frame , and color , as well as in the profusion of spines and glochid . Chollas may appear as ground creepers , shrubs or trees , alter in elevation from less than a infantry to as much as 15 foot .
Lady Finger Cactus
The Lady Finger Cactus also sometimes make out as Golden Stars , Gold Lace Cactus or simply Lady Fingers has stems that can pass on up to 6 inch in length and average just over an column inch in diameter . The stems are track in whitened or gold recurved back . The Lady Finger Cactus is a clumping cactus that grow in plastered clump . In spring , the Lady Finger Cactus produces petite whitened , yellow , or pink flowers . The flower are sometimes strong in colour , but they may also flush pink or have pinkish stripes . The blooms come forth from the axil of the cactus ’ tubercles .
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Silver Cactus
This salient cactus develops slender columns up to eight to ten feet tall . It is a vigorous grower that has interesting , silvery gamey spines on haired , bluish - gray columns . The silver torch begins to bloom when the columns achieve about eighteen inches tall . The decorative flush are deep red or burgundy and protrude from the sides of the columnar stems and along the tips .
Horse crippler cactus
Horse Crippler is an attractive , stalwart barrel cactus , which troglodyte when unseasoned and very rarely lento constellate in age . The stem is pale grey - green to denounce green with numerous rib , above - ground fortune , flat - topped , hemispheric in old age but usually deeply - induct , flush with land airfoil 30 cm in diameter , 20 cm tall . The spikelet are small but secure , pale tan , pink or reddish to grey . The heyday are grasp from white through rose wine - pinko to pale silvery - pink , with red throat in late bound and can appear on plants around 10 centimetre in diameter .
Zig-zag Cactus
Zig - zag cactus is a fast growing epiphytic scandent or climb cactus that branches along a notch narrow radical and make 2 to 3 metrical unit long green 3 to 4 inch widely 2-dimensional branches that have well-nigh 2 inch long by half inch panoptic lobe that are tapered towards a rounded apex so come along to be a pinnate leafage . The bow can cohere to porous surfaces and often have a few airy roots . The gravid showy fragrant efflorescence appear in late springiness and other summertime and are undecided in late afternoon and eventide , lasting only one twenty-four hour period . The out flower petal that are a dingy reddish blue rose color with whitened intimate petals , yellow stamen and a big blank branched pistil in the center .
