Naturale o “da balcone”? Ecco come cambia un cactus a seconda del tipo di coltivazione

Quando si dice che una foto rende meglio di tante parole. In questo caso le foto sono tre, ma il concetto non cambia e la differenza tra un cactus coltivato in modo “naturale” o “wild” e uno coltivato “da garden”, sulla base di nozioni e convinzioni basilari è piuttosto evidente. Le piante in questione sono dei Ferocactus latispinus ottenuti da una mia semina del 2012. Da quella stessa semina ho ottenuto almeno una quarantina di piante. Negli anni alcune le ho cedute, ma la maggior parte è ancora con me e crescono meravigliosamente.

E’ importante precisare che si tratta di piante nate da semi contenuti in un unico frutto (regalo di un caro amico), seminati lo stesso giorno e coltivati nel corso degli anni in identiche condizioni, ossia nella mia serra, in terriccio standard (pomice, lapillo e torba in parti uguali), annaffiati e fertilizzati con identica frequenza. Questo per dire che le condizioni di partenza, comprese quelle genetiche e compresa la mano del coltivatore, sono identiche. Eppure, come si vede dalla foto in alto, dove le tre piante (tre a caso delle circa venticinque che ho tenuto per me) sono affiancate, presentano differenze notevoli, quantomeno per l’occhio attento e per il coltivatore con un minimo di esperienza.

Vediamo allora come e perché differenti regimi di coltivazione, intesa nel suo complesso e non limitata al solo terriccio, influiscono così tanto sul risultato finale e fanno veramente la differenza tra un cactus cresciuto e coltivato in un qualsiasi garden o vivaio generico e un cactus coltivato da un appassionato o da un esperto. (…)

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Echinocactus (Homalocephala) texensis, descrizione e cura del cactus “azzoppacavalli”

Un nome scientifico dibattuto e una sfilza di nomi comuni, o “volgari”: da “cactus testa di diavolo” ad “azzoppacavalli”, “puntaspilli del diavolo”, “cactus caramella” e altri ancora. Echinocactus texensis è una cactacea straordinaria, in parte ancora poco conosciuta e poco diffusa in coltivazione e tuttavia, a mio avviso, in possesso di tutte le caratteristiche che rendono un cactus degno di questo nome: aspetto compatto e tondeggiante, spine forti e colorate, bellissime fioriture, grande resistenza alla siccità e alta tolleranza al sole diretto così come alle basse temperature invernali. A questo si aggiungano frutti altamente decorativi di color rosso intenso (tra i più belli in assoluto tra quelli di cactus) e una relativa semplicità di coltivazione unita ad una grande predisposizione per la tecnica “wild”.

Ho deciso di realizzare una scheda di questa pianta, che in realtà coltivo già da parecchi anni, dopo averne acquistati alcuni esemplari da Mario Del Panta, titolare dell’omonima Azienda agricola a Ventimiglia, al confine tra Liguria e Costa Azzurra. I texensis di Mario, lo dico in tutta onestà e senza alcun intento promozionale, sono decisamente i migliori che mi sia mai capitato di trovare in commercio. Non solo: ho avuto con lui più di una chiacchierata telefonica dalla quale sono emersi diversi spunti molto interessanti riguardo alla coltivazione e soprattutto alla semina di questa specie (a mio avviso ingiustamente sottovalutata), che intendo “tradurre” in articoli o video per questo mio sito.

Il principale approfondimento è quello condensato in questo post, elaborato per iniziare a conoscere, classificare, descrivere e inquadrare l’Echinocactus (o Homalocephala) texensis fornendo consigli di coltivazione e curiosità sulla base della mia esperienza e di quanto compendiato in svariati testi dedicati alle cactacee. L’articolo che segue è stato pubblicato sul numero di settembre 2021 (vol. 39) della rivista “Cactus World” edita dalla British Cactus & Succulent Society (BCSS). (…)

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Un tutorial video per sfruttare al meglio i tanti contenuti del sito “Il fiore tra le spine”

Come si suol dire: meglio tardi che mai. A quasi tre anni dalla messa online di questo sito ho deciso di realizzare una sorta di tutorial per spiegare ai tanti lettori come sfruttare al meglio i tantissimi contenuti de “Il fiore tra le spine“.

Ho deciso di farlo adesso per tre buone ragioni. La prima: i contenuti, in questi anni, sono “esplosi” e il sito è ormai ricchissimo di testi, foto, grafiche, informazioni, recensioni, schede, commenti di lettori (quasi 900 tra tutti gli articoli) e altro ancora. La seconda ragione: in tanti, pur apprezzando la semplicità di navigazione del sito, mi chiedono come trovare questo o quell’articolo, come raggiungere quella sezione o come trovare un dato argomento, soprattutto da telefonino. Infine la terza, banalissima, ragione: adesso Il fiore tra le spine ha un suo canale Youtube ed è quindi molto semplice veicolare tutorial come questo.

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Anomalie dei cactus, mostruosità, crestature e variegature: cosa sono e perché si formano

Mostruosità, fasciazioni, crestature, variegature: sono tanti i termini con i quali si individuano particolari anomalie nelle piante. Qui parliamo, in particolare, delle piante succulente e dei cactus, comunemente detti crestati o mostruosi, ma questo fenomeno è comune in tutto il regno vegetale e può interessare il fusto, le foglie e anche i fiori. Dal punto di vista scientifico si parla di “teratologia“, ricorrendo a un termine coniato nel 1832 per indicare lo studio di quelli che possiamo definire “mostri” nel regno vegetale e animale, ossia esemplari difformi e con caratteristiche particolari rispetto a quelle “tradizionali” di quel genere o di quella specie.

Se i fenomeni teratologici che possono interessare le piante grasse sono svariati, due in particolare sono quelli più ricorrenti e addirittura apprezzati da molti collezionisti di cactus e succulente: le fasciazioni (o crestature) e le variegature. Questa macro-suddivisione, a mio avviso condivisibile, è quella adottata da Gordon Rowley nel suo volume del 2006, “Teratopia“. Altri autori, talvolta in modo più confuso, parlano indistintamente di esemplari “mostruosi”, o di “proliferazione” riferendosi a esemplari di cactacee o succulente che presentano caratteri anomali rispetto a quelli tipici della specie. (…)

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