A yellow blob of thorny fractals?
This eye-catching cactus caught my attention at an IFFCO Kisan outlet selling indoor plants. It sat on a shelf with other succulents but combination seemed rather unusual. The lower green part looked as though it had been shorn of its thorns while the bright yellow or pink portion did not look as though it had emerged from a flower.
Sure enough it turns out that this is grafted combo of two different species of cactus - the yellow portion belongs to Gymnocalycium mihanovichii while the lower, green one belongs Hylocerus, a family better known for producing edible pitayas, aka "Dragon-fruit".
The interesting bit is that Gymnocalycium completely lacks chlorophyll. It was originally found in Paraguay growing under bushes with little exposure to sunlight. Somewhere along along the way it got to grafted to other cactus species that does have chlorophyll creating a novel variety which is now being marketed as 'Moon Cactus'!
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LINKS:
IFFCO Kisan Urban Garden - https://www.ikug.in/indoor-plants
https://worldofsucculents.com/what-are-grafted-cacti/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hylocereus
http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACTI/Family/Cactaceae/11929/Gymnocalycium_mihanovichii
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bvZrCDJSh4
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