Saturday, August 11, 2012

Starfish Cactus

A couple years ago, a friend gave me some cuttings from her cactus. They rooted and were then planted in soil and left to grow in the greenhouse. This spring, I brought the cactus outside and put it on the deck with many other plants that had wintered over inside.

Today, as I was watering the plants on the deck, I noticed a start flower on that same cactus. What a thrill!  Of course, I had to photograph it and found it very interesting in its details.

The name is Orbea variegata syn. Staphilia - Starfish cactus and you can see why when you look at the shape. The outside flower is a star.  Look carefully at the macro shots inside the flower. The shape of 5's is consistent right down to the center of the flower.  Love the consistency in nature!

Orbea variegata syn. Staphilia - Starfish cactus  



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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 11, 2012 at 2:06 PM

    Beautiful photos!

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  2. Nancy RidenourAugust 11, 2012 at 2:15 PM

    Many thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christine SchmidtAugust 29, 2012 at 8:54 AM

    Actually, I believe this is a Orbea variegata and not a stapelia. It looks like they are sometimes confused as they both go by starfish cactus. In any case, they are really cool.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nancy RidenourAugust 29, 2012 at 9:01 AM

    Thanks for the feedback, Christine.

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