Description
This is the cested form of the monstrous cultivar known as Echinopsis aurea subs. shaferi f. monstruosa.
It has iregular bright-green to dull olive-green ribs with purple hues in full sun. It has only a few areoles with a short white wool. The areoles are arranged irregularly and often are fused to form peculiar horizontal lines contrasting with the stem.
Spines: Few honey-coloured to brown with darker tips, located on the few areole in groups. They can grow up to 4–25 mm long.
Flowers: Yellow and monstrous looking with short curled petals and a greenish to orangish floral tube.
Origin and Habitat
Garden origin (Nursery produced cultivar)
Cultivation and Propagation
It is easy to grow and cold hardy as low as -5°C (or less). Need a fertile, well drained soil mix. Water the plants well and allow them to dry before watering again. This cultivar seems to do better with a little more water than most cacti. In fact, its cultivation requirements are really more like ‘normal’ plants than most other cacti. During the growing season fertilize them monthly with a balanced fertilizer
Sun Exposure: Outside full sun, but during hot summers, the cactus are subject to sun burning, so grow them in light shade, inside needs bright light, and some direct sun.. During winter month, put them in a cool luminous place and encourage them to enter winter dormancy by withholding water and fertiliser over the winter as they will ethiolate, or become thin, due to lower levels of light. They are susceptible to fungal diseases if overwatered, but are not nearly as sensitive as many other cacti, especially in warm weather. They tend characteristically towards black rotted spots unless watering is moderate and only in hot weather, if kept damp through cold periods, they will invariably suffer.
Propagation: It can easily be multiplied from cutting. Single sections are taken off, dried and rooted. It is also grafted on strong columnar species.
Bibliography
Major references and further lectures
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David Hunt, Nigel Taylor “The New Cactus Lexicon” DH Books, 2006 ISBN 0953813444, 9780953813445
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Edward F. Anderson “The Cactus Family” Timber Press, 2001
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James Cullen, Sabina G. Knees, H. Suzanne Cubey “The European Garden Flora Flowering Plants: A Manual for the Identification of Plants Cultivated in Europe, Both Out-of-Doors and Under Glass”Cambridge University Press, 11/ago/2011
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David Hunt, Nigel Taylor “The New Cactus Lexicon” DH Books, 2006 ISBN 0953813444, 9780953813445
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Walter Rausch “Lobivia 85” Rudolf Herzig Vienna 1985/86 (text in German)
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Curt Backeberg “Das Kakteenlexikon: Enumeratio diagnostica Cactacearum” Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1979 (text in German) ISBN 3437201794, 9783437201790
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