PlantFiles Pictures: Arizona Queen of the Night, Deer-Horn Cactus, Reina de la Noche, Night-Blooming, 0 by CactusJordi

CactusJordi wrote:
Xeno,
because you took the photo in DBG this plant is indeed most likely a pampered v. transmontanus.

Regarding books in which the greggii vars are not lumped, there is K. Backeberg 'Die Cactaceae', Helia Bravo-Hollis 'Las Cactáceas de México' and G. Engelmann 'Cactaceae of the Boundary'.

The following photos taken from these books are NOT 'copyright CactusJordi'!

And I think though the vars are certainly closely related one should keep them apart in particular when producing seeds to avoid production of intermediate forms which might not exist in nature.

BTW my splitter-tendency is the result of almost 40 years visiting habitats of Pediocactus simpsonii in the western states of the US. They grow from WA down to NM in so many different shapes (but homogeneous within their colonies) and there were just 2-3 hardly accepted var names. What untypical mix would I have produced only pollinating the taxon from Vernell, UT with that of Bicknell, UT let alone the one from Ginko Petrified Forrest in WA with the plants from Sandia Mts in NM.

Jordi




This message was edited Sep 5, 2009 4:06 PM