Flowering Opuntia tortispina

Back in 2004 I ordered a batch of plants from Uhlig-Kakteen in Germany including two Opuntia tortispina (DJF 1139; west Albuquerque, New Mexico). The plants arrived in late summer and spent their first winter outdoors in a large pot placed near a south facing wall. In 2005 one of the plants was transplanted to an unprotected bed; this plant flowered for the first time this summer but unfortunately the flowers never unfolded completely because of rainy and overcast weather.


Opuntia tortispina flower

My unprotected beds are located in the northern parts of Denmark only a couple hundred meters (yards) from the North Sea and the plants are often exposed to strong, salty westerlies. Most of my plants seem to thrive in these conditions with O. tortispina as one of the exceptions – it grows slowly and has orange-brown, barky patches on all cladodes.


Opuntia tortispina in unprotected bed

The plant still growing in the pot protected by a house wall is more than double in size, and all cladodes are an immaculate green; on the other hand this plant never flowered ;-) Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures for comparison.

You can find details on other Opuntia plants that flowered in the summer of 2007 in these posts: Opuntia fragilis (Butte Co, Nebraska), Opuntia polyacantha, Opuntia 'Claude Arno'.

Black slugs feasting on Delosperma

The gastropods thrived during the wet weather spell that haunted Denmark a couple of weeks ago – especially black slugs (Arion ater) were abundant in my area. The slugs seem to have a preference for the turgid, succulent leaves of Delosperma nubigenum (Sani Pass, 2900m, Lesotho), grazing off large parts of the plant.


Two black slugs feasting on Delosperma

I don’t know if the slugs don’t find the Delosperma nubigenum flowers palatable or if the attention of the leftmost slug was otherwise diverted.


A close escape - the flower survives

Anyway, the flower escaped being eaten and I removed the slugs from the plant just after taking the above pictures.

Fortunately the weather has dried up considerably, forcing the slugs and snails into hiding.