Because cactus blossoms don’t persist long, wind or insect pollination is more challenging. Cacti are unable to produce fruits and seeds without pollination. When you self-pollinate cacti, you have complete control over the outcome, whether you’re aiming to develop a novel hybrid or develop a particular cactus variety. Hand pollination is the only way to guarantee that the two types you are attempting to cross pollinate, as hybrid pollination does not always result in the production of viable seeds.
Once flowers start to develop, put your two cactus plants next to one another. You can try to create a hybrid with the same type of cactus or with two different types by crossing them. Choose which plants you want to pollinate if the cacti are outside. Although more pollen can be transported when the plants are close to one another, this is not necessary.
Check your flowers every day for pollen. The stamens, which are frequently fluffy threads encircling the part of the flower where the stigma are located, are where pollen grows. The flower’s petals show a thin dusting of pollen.
The second cactus flower’s stigma should be painted with pollen. The stigma, which resembles tiny fingers in appearance, are thicker than the stamens. In order to help them capture the pollen, the tops are typically slightly open and sticky. Wait another day before attempting to pollinate if the stigma tops are not yet open to give them time to do so.
Wait for the brush to dry after cleaning it. The second cactus bloom should be used to complete the process, with the pollen being applied to the stigma of the first cactus after dusting the stamens for pollen.
Nylon stockings should be placed over both cacti to stop pollination by other cactus plants. Only if you want to try and influence the kind of seed the plants produce is this important. If your primary objective is to induce the cactus to produce fruit or seeds, keep the plants exposed to attract insects and wind, which will aid in additional pollination.
Cacti are pollinated in what ways?
A cactus’ blossoms must be pollinated in order to set seed. To ensure genetic variation, the pollen for the majority of cactus types must originate from another cactus plant. Although it is possible to manually pollinate the flowers using a swab or by removing the pollen-bearing stamen from the flower and placing it directly into the flower of the other cactus, pollen is typically transferred from one cactus to another by insects or birds that visit the flowers in search of nectar.
Cacti self-pollinate, right?
There is no need for even two blossoms if a species is self-fertile. Some plants may self-pollinate on their own without any help, while others require an intermediary to move pollen from the anthers to the stigma. For instance, even if only one flower opens at a time, my Echinopsis ancistrophora always sets seed when it blooms outdoors because hover flies visit it. When I took it indoors to bloom, it occasionally failed to produce pollen (and the flowers lasted longer).
What pollinates the flowers of cacti?
“Bad girls travel everywhere; good girls go to heaven.” Reading a research report on cactus blossoms that referred to their “promiscuous” blooms made me think of Mae West.
Perhaps cactus flowers are bad girls because in the dry desert they must entice scarce and far away pollinators. This requires an eye-catching outfit, strong cologne, and a tasty reward. Instantly pregnant girls produce enormous volumes of seed, which helps the species survive by dispersing their progeny far.
Both indigenous and foreign cactus species flourish here in the desert and in our gardens. Various species can be found all over the Southwest and Mexico, including the prickly pear and barrel cactus, hedgehog, and mammilarias. Many other species are indigenous to the arid parts of South America, however some, like the orchid cactus, have evolved to thrive in more humid environments. For their genes to travel to and infect other flowers, each one of them is dependent on regional pollen vectors.
This year’s cactus flowering season is earlier than usual because of the warm January weather. Take a good look at these blooms when you come across them to see if you can identify the pollinators that they prefer. They can attract particular pollinators that have influenced how the flower has evolved over time, even though they almost all host honeybees.
Bees: Bees are the main pollinators for cacti, and they help them create two different kinds of flowers. Open bowl-shaped blooms come first, followed by flat disk-shaped or “daisy” flowers. Both may lack significant smell, and blossoms may have very little or no nectar at all. To attract insects with short tongues, their nectaries are located relatively high in the flower. Desert bees come in many sizes, from tiny native species to enormous bumble bees. With 90 different species of visiting members of the genus Opuntia, prickly pears are the largest example of bee cactus flowers.
Hummingbird: Because they are native to the Americas, hummingbirds are crucial for pollinating cacti. The asymmetrical, extruded organs of hummer-adapted flowers are often found outside the tubular blooms. The nectar itself has an extraordinarily high sugar concentration, and nectaries are located deep within the flower. The majority will be in the red color spectrum, which is what these little birds prefer. The majority of the most exotic-looking tropical vine cacti are hummingbird-adapted, but they struggle in our dry climate.
Bats: In our southwestern deserts, bats are crucial for pollination plants. Bat-specific flowers are larger to match their size, have more diluted nectar, and have a strong fruity scent. For ease of access, such blooms are sometimes held high up on the cactus above brushy creosote and spiky mesquite. Cactus flowers that are pollinated by bats open at night and are often dull-colored, most frequently white, creamy, or pale yellow, making them more noticeable at night. Saguaro cacti are a well-known example of bat-pollinated cacti, so keep a watch on those plants in town that are lit up by streetlights to catch their nocturnal dance.
More wildlife will visit your yard if you choose cacti from all three pollination groups when planting desert gardens. Because these cacti represent terrestrial, tall columnar, and vine cactus kinds, it also creates an astonishing diversity. The truth is that our desert supports a huge variety of species from South America and Mexico. All too often, we imagine that the only species available are the barrel cactus and the prickly pear.
So, as the days become longer in the spring and cacti begin to bloom, try to determine what kind of pollinator the plant is courting by the shape and color of its flower. Because of this, you are forced to stop, examine more closely, and find these promiscuous girls who are the naughty and gorgeous bloomers of our desert.
How are cactus plants bred?
Probably the most frequent and straightforward method of propagation is stem cuttings. Stem cuttings are an effective method for multiplying many cacti. Stem cuttings from an existing plant are removed, then left to calluse and dry out. Eventually, the cuttings will begin to take root from the cut end and grow into a new plant.
Some cacti that are frequently multiplied via stem cuttings include:
- Prickly pears or opuntia
- Collapsed cactus
- Globular and pincushion cacti
Can a cactus be bred?
Through the technique of propagation, you can quickly duplicate your collection of succulents and cacti.
Your plant can be multiplied in a number of ways, including division, cutting, beginning from seeds, and grafting.
The sort of plant you have will determine the optimum technique of propagation. The many forms of propagation will be explained in this section.
It’s simple to grow succulents and other cacti. Any motivation you may offer them will trigger fresh growth. Keep in mind that they prefer to develop in a dry environment and that too much moisture or humidity will make them decay.
You must: for successful propagation of any kind.
- hone your technical and mechanical abilities. Develop your hands and eyes. Many times, the hand can’t perform what the head knows how to do. Practice makes perfect, and fortunately these plants are very tolerant.
- learn the skeletal systems and growth patterns of the plants. Working with plants and letting them educate you is one way to learn this. Other ways to learn include reading, taking formal classes, or a combination of these. Understanding how plants develop will make it simpler for you to propagate them and will improve your ability to handle unforeseen circumstances.
- Learn about the many plant species and the techniques used to grow them. The plant and your situation will determine the type of propagation adopted.
Division
The simplest method of multiplication is division. It is easy on the plant as well as on you. When you simply need a few plants, division is great. You can also use it when a plant begins to crowd in on itself.
A moderate method of reproduction is division. It’s an operation that, when done delicately, is just marginally more traumatic than transplanting.
There is trauma since the root ball is being cut apart and only a portion of the plant is being potted up; yet, the plant has roots, a stem, and leaves (if not the leaves, at least the shoots to produce them). All you have to do is support each component’s growth and safeguard it until it recovers from the impacts of the division.
Some plants are simple to divide, while others take a diamond cutter’s eye to maximize the opportunities.
Indoor plants can be divided at any time, but it is especially beneficial from the plant’s perspective to divide them in the winter when the plant is dormant and indoor gardeners are also less active.
Because the plants will just sit there and do nothing until it is appropriate for them to emerge out of their dormancy and start growing with passion, dividing plants in the winter can be stressful for indoor gardeners.
Numerous succulents, particularly those with dense mats of sprawling growth, are quite simple to divide. They thrive, especially if the division occurs at the start of their growing season.
What does it mean to be an open pollinated cactus?
All heritage plant varieties as well as non-hybrid plant varieties that are not old enough to be considered heirlooms are considered open-pollinated, or standard plants. Before the invention of modern hybrids in the early 1900s, humans only grew open-pollinated plants. The word “open-pollinated” refers to seed development that has not been significantly influenced by humans. They must not be planted close together in order to retain separate kinds for seed production because insects or wind can pollinate blossoms (this is natural hybridization).
Pollination can sometimes take place inside the closed flowers of open-pollinated plants like peas, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes. Self-pollination is used here; wind or bees are not used. Occasionally, a rare bee might breach the blossom and transfer pollen to a different flower.
An heirloom is an open-pollinated cultivar that has been passed down via a family or has been grown in a specific location for at least 50 years and is true to seed. As an illustration, great-grandpa may have given it to grandma, who then gave it to your aunt, who then gave it to you. These open-pollinated types will maintain their characteristics from generation to generation if we cultivate them.
Deliberate hybrid types only generate homogeneous, typically vigorous plants for one growing season; seeds stored and cultivated from the hybrid generation are genetically unstable, therefore planting seed obtained from hybrid plants will create a wide range of unique and unexpected results.
Even while modern hybrid plants have a wider range of disease resistances than heirloom and other open-pollinated plants, their fruit may be less uniform and their yield may be lower, many people contend that heirloom plants have better flavor than hybrids. However, taste is very subjective; I have tried both poor open-pollinated tomatoes and excellent hybrid tomatoes, as well as the opposite. Indeed, heirlooms come in a staggering array of colors, sizes, and flavors.
Thousands of open-pollinated seed variants once numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Many of them disappeared over time. Three enormous agricultural chemical companies—DowDuPont, Bayer-Monsanto, and Syngenta-ChemChina—have taken control of 60% of the global seed market since 2000, and they are quickly acquiring smaller seed firms. These large firms are establishing seed monopolies in nations like India. Many beloved vintage heirlooms with distinctive genetic traits have since vanished from the market. But there has been some hope in recent years. I have witnessed the establishment of numerous small, independent seed businesses that market heirloom and open-pollinated seed varieties. Planting and preserving open-pollinated seeds helps preserve some genetic variety and human history.
Open-pollinated seeds typically cost less than hybrid seeds. Hybrid seed costs have been reported to reach 50 cents. It takes many years to develop a hybrid, and tens of thousands of test crossings are performed along the way. The hybrid’s creator is attempting to return his money. You can actually cultivate seeds from the majority of hybrids (aside from sterile ones), create a mishmash of different plants, carefully weed out undesirable varieties, and in six to eight generations you will have your own open-pollinated, stable variation. It might be referred to as an heirloom cultivar in fifty years.
What kind of seeds ought to be planted? There are benefits and drawbacks to each variety. Both hybrid and open-pollinated seeds are planted by me, but I do extensive study before buying. Each person uses different standards to select a certain kind.
The cactus is pollinated by hummingbirds.
A lovely claret cup cactus welcomed me to my camping spot in Chaco Culture National Historic Park. Even though I had been searching for flowering cactus during my two days of travel and hiking in New Mexico, this was the first one I had come across.
Southwest spring has been delayed by a severe drought, and claret cup is one of the first spring-flowering cacti.
The diameter of this specific example was between three and four feet, and it had about 150 blooms. Nearby, smaller and probably younger claret cups with just one or a few stems and numerous flowers were seen. The cactus develop into separate, spectacular mounds, some of which have hundreds of blooms.
Echinocereus triglochidiatus, sometimes known as the claret cup cactus, is so named. Since the smaller cacti have a growth form resembling those spiny animals, the name Echinocereus is derived from the Greek word “echinos,” which means hedgehog. Claret cup refers to the flower’s unusual shape and the color of its tepals (the structures forming the outer portion of a flower when they are not differentiated into sepals and petals).
About 150 flowers, each lasting three to five days, cover the claret cup cactus, which develops into a mound up to three to four feet in diameter. images taken by Jeff Mitton.
Its blooms stand out for their shape, morphology, and timing of availability in addition to color. The bloom is roughly three and a half inches long, slightly wider than two inches, and shaped like a funnel. On top of a robust white style, the stigma is a compact cluster of seven to nine vivid green lobes.
Well below the stigma, the anthers cluster into a thick pink to purple collar around the style. At the very bottom of the cup, the nectar chamber is covered by a conical roof made of tightly packed stamens that are attached to the style. To accommodate their pollinators, claret cupflowers are open day and night, in contrast to other cactus flowers, which close at night.
Hummingbirds pollinate claret cups more frequently than bees, butterflies, or flies, which are all common pollinators of cacti. The hummingbird must insert its entire head into the flower in order to drink from the nectar chamber, which is situated deep inside a claret cup. As it enters the flower, its bill, face, and the top of its head rub against the stigma and the collar of the anthers, ensuring the transfer of pollen.
Flowers are modified for hummingbird pollination by changing the size, shape, location of the anthers, and nectar chamber. And although a long bill can easily separate the stamen filaments that make up the nectar chamber’s conical roof, I believe that they may act as a deterrent to flies and beetles that steal nectar.
I inspected prickly pear cactus and claret cup flowers in Rabbit Valley, in the McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area in western Colorado, and found that cactus beetles almost lived inside every one of them (described in a column in April 2017). Although they spend their days in cactus blooms cutting stamens and consuming pollen, cactus beetles have little to no effect on pollination.
After opening, adult beetles fly to the cactus flowers, penetrate them, and quickly lay their eggs at the bases of the stamens. The larvae ingest pollen and flower components for several days before leaving to pupate in the earth. The eggs hatch in three to five days. I fail to understand how housing cactus insects benefits cacti in any way.
Native to Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, and northern Mexico, the claret cup has a great deal of variety throughout its range like many widely dispersed species. The hue of the anthers ranges from pink to purple, and the colors of the tepals are lavender, light pink, orange, brilliant red, and light pink. Spine density ranges from being completely boneless to being thickly bristled.
Geneticists just recently discovered that claret cups have tetraploid (46 chromosomes) rather than diploid (22 chromosomes) DNA in the southern section of their distribution (44 chromosomes). Some individuals believed that this mutation was sufficient justification for naming the tetraploid E. coccineus as a distinct species.
Others argued that the species cannot be distinguished in the field and that the only reliable way to distinguish E. triglochidiatus from E. coccineus is to count its chromosomes. When populations are just starting to diversify along independent evolutionary pathways, naming species can be challenging.