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Il fiore tra le spine

Mese: Aprile 2023

Echinopsis Haku-jo, il cactus dalle origini misteriose: non esiste in natura ma spopola in commercio

E’ un po’ come quel lontano parente schivo e riservato: in famiglia tutti sanno che c’è, ma di lui, della sua storia, si sa poco o nulla. Chi coltiva cactus e piante succulente, chi è abituato a frequentare mostre-mercato di piante grasse, chi bazzica vivai ben riforniti, ne ha certamente osservato più di un esemplare. Molti appassionati ne hanno uno o più esemplari nella loro collezione di cactacee. Eppure, di questo Echinopsis Haku-jo si sa ben poco. Nei tanti testi dedicati alle cactacee (non solo in lingua italiana) la pianta compare spesso in fotografia ma le informazioni sono sempre scarne; online si trovano solo brevi schede sintetiche, quasi sempre a corredo degli esemplari in vendita. Per il resto, nulla. La storia di questa cultivar (pianta non esistente in natura ma ottenuta attraverso ibridazione e incroci da parte dell’uomo) resta avvolta nel mistero.

In questo articolo cerco di riassumere quello che ho imparato in anni di coltivazione e ciò che sono riuscito a sapere di questa intrigante cultivar di Echinopsis, la cui fioritura è tra le più bizzarre in tutta la famiglia delle cactacee (…).

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L’eccezionale fioritura del raro Selenicereus wittii nel Giardino Botanico di Cambridge: un evento mondiale

Può una singola fioritura tenere decine di migliaia di persone da tutto il mondo con il fiato sospeso e gli occhi puntati su un video in “time lapse”? Certamente sì, se questa fioritura è di una cactacea rara, coltivata in soli 16 giardini botanici in tutto il mondo. Il cactus è Strophocactus wittii (sinonimo Selenicereus wittii), comunemente detto “Moonflower” (“fiore di luna”) per via della sua fioritura notturna. Si tratta di una specie di Selenicereus simile alla più nota S. grandiflorus, in Italia conosciuta come “Regina della notte”. L’evento, occorso poche settimane fa, nel marzo del 2023, era tanto atteso e particolare da attirare l’attenzione di moltissimi ricercatori, studiosi e semplici appassionati. Non a caso la notizia è stata ripresa anche dalla celebre BBC.

Ecco in dettaglio la descrizione dell’evento fornita sia dalla BBC che dall’Università di Cambridge (…).

Leggi tutto “L’eccezionale fioritura del raro Selenicereus wittii nel Giardino Botanico di Cambridge: un evento mondiale”

Quanto conta la terra nella coltivazione dei cactus? Dopo 3 anni i risultati di un test su sei Mammillaria

Anche in questo caso, così come in quello del test sugli Echinocactus texensis (trovate il resoconto a questo link) il risultato mi ha stupito e la terra, o meglio il substrato “sperimentale” ha avuto la meglio. E ancora una volta i risultati meno soddisfacenti arrivano dal terriccio “tradizionale”, a ulteriore conferma che con i cactus la sperimentazione – in particolare sui terricci – ha molto da insegnare e quasi sempre restituisce risultati difficilmente prevedibili. Oggetto di questo esperimento che ho avviato tre anni fa sono sei Mammillaria hahniana. Piante comuni ma molto belle, che hanno trascorso questi ultimi tre anni in tre tipologie di substrato molto diverse tra di loro. Le piante, come sempre in questi esperimenti, arrivavano da una identica semina e partivano, in sostanza, “alla pari”. Col tempo gli effetti dei diversi substrati sulla crescita delle piante si sono manifestati e oggi la comparazione rende subito l’idea di quale terriccio abbia lavorato meglio.

Vediamo in dettaglio in cosa è consistito l’esperimento e soprattutto vediamo come si presentavano le piante tre anni fa e oggi (…)

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