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Coleocephalocereus aureus

Collecting Cactus Seeds Part 2: Written – May 28, 2009 Collecting cactus seeds is for the most part a very easy task. Some plants practically hand them to you, while others do make you work for them. A lot of cactus fruits are fleshy and have a certain amount of pulp in them. These are the ones that take some extra work. Others can still be fleshy, but have little to no pulp and the seeds freely drop out. Then there are some that have dry fruit. (i.e. some Opuntia species) These can have a very tough exterior and may require some effort to break them open. (a spare nutcracker in your toolbox will help!) However, once open, the inside is pulp free and dry and the seeds freely drop out. For some species (i.e. Tephrocactus) there can be a lot of glochids inside the dry fruit, tweezers are highly recommended when handling these seeds!! Some species can push their fruit out and right off the plant in a matter of hours. For example: The photo to the left is of C. aureus. This was the first time obtaining fruit with this specie, so I was curious to watch its progress. I first saw the fruit emerge at around 9am. When I checked back on it that same afternoon, the fruit was lying on the bench! The plant had pushed the fruit out and off the plant in just a few hours. Very interesting!

Tweezers Coin envelope	1. Preparation You’ll need a few tools for this. 1. Blunt tip tweezers (sharp pointy tweezers can poke the plant skin and cause damage) 2. A small coin envelope or similar. 3. Paper towels or similar 4. Small knife or razor blade 5. Small food strainer 6. Small eating spoon or similar
Tweezers picking fruit Fleshy yet somewhat dry fruit covered in spines Echinocereus engelmannii	2. Picking the Fruit In some cases, you will be able to simply pick the fruit off the plant and cut it open on the bench using a paper towel to soak up any pulp and to be able to see the dark seeds easily as they drop out. In other cases, picking the fruit off the plant could result in all the seeds being lost. Some fruit split open at the base and release the seeds down the sides of the plant. Care must be taken when picking these types of fruit as you want to collect as many seeds as you can. Maneuvering a piece of paper or the coin envelope in-between the spines and ribs to act as a funnel can be a task! But worth the efforts for a nice batch of seeds, rather than just a few. Also, if these types of fleshy fruits are picked a little before they are ripe, they can rip at the base of the fruit as you pull and just dump all the seeds out. In some cases the seeds will still be viable even if picked a bit early but you’ll have a chore to collect them off the ground or in your pots top dressing. Some fruit are spineless and pose no pokey threats, while others can be completely covered in spines and/or glochids. Tweezers certainly come in handy with these! However, in some cases the spines on the fruit fall off easily and can be picked away with ease. (i.e. Echinocereus) Some fruit (i.e. Harrisia pomanensis) are still very attached to the plant despite being ripe and split open. It will eventually fall off the plant, but with it already split open, the chance of fungus and mold is greater. Carefully cut the fruit from the plant using your knife or razor blade. In cases were you’re in tight quarters, it’s best to cut into the fruit leaving a small part of the fruit behind than trying to cut it directly at the plant. This will greatly reduce any damage done to the plant. Twisting or pulling on the fruit to release it can cause damage to the plant by tearing the areole or worse, taking a chunk of plant with it! So, cut the fruit, not the plant! Add a small dusting of anti-fungal powder to any cut surfaces on the plant.
Fleshy, pulp free fruit Ferocactus glaucescens inermis.	Fleshy fruit with pulp Harrisia pomanensis	Dry fruit covered in glochids Cylindropuntia bigelovii
Fleshy fruit Oroya gibbosa This type stays embedded in the plant as it ripens	Fleshy fruit with pulp Cereus aethiops	Dry fruit covered in spines and glochids Opuntia polyacantha v. erinacea
Fruit cut open and seeds scooped out. Fleshy w/pulp, but the pulp is no problem to separate. Coleocephalocereus aureus	3. Cleaning the pulp and extracting the seeds Once you’ve cut open the fleshy fruit and scooped out the pulp and seeds, you’ll need to get rid of all that pulp. Some fruit have more, some less. Using paper towels to dab and roll works well. Or using a strong paper towel or a true towel, running ii under the sink tap will help disperse some of the pulp. Another option is to use a food strainer. Since seeds come in various sizes, we’d suggest getting the smallest screened strainer you can find. This may take some effort, so be forewarned. For the few seeds left over in the pulp, an easy method is to roll the seed/pulp in your fingers.
Fleshy non-pulp fruit cut open and put into envelope Thelocactus bicolor ssp. schwarzi	4. Extracting seeds from non-pulp or dry pulp fruit These are our favorite type of fruit. Most of the time it’s simply a matter of picking the fruit, cutting it open over your paper towel so as not to lose any and dumping the seeds into the envelope. DONE! Sometimes, as mentioned above, you will need to catch the seeds as they dribble down the side of the plant because the bottom of the fruit has already split open. Other fruit that has no pulp or has dry pulp could require more effort to cut open, as they can be hard and dry, (some of these will split open on their own making it easy) but once open the seeds are easily extracted by gently scraping the inside of the fruit with your tweezers onto the paper towel and cleaning away any dry pulp bits.
A developing fruit at 60 days. Fleshy with pulp. Oreocereus fossulatus	5. Storing the seeds Now that you’ve spent all this time extracting the seeds and putting them into envelopes and labeling them! It’s time to store them for when it comes time to sow. For the most part, a dry cool spot in a kitchen cupboard is good. (not above the oven/microwave or fridge, as these will give off a lot of heat and cycle the temperature of the seeds each time the appliances are used) Admittedly, we have never noticed any problems, but its better safe than sorry. Some folks like to store their seeds in envelopes inside small Tupperware containers and placed in the fridge or freezer. We have never used this method, so we have no comment or info on it’s effectiveness on keeping the seeds viable. Some seeds can remain viable for many years, while others can be duds within a month. This will require research for the particular plant you collected the seeds from to know how long viability is kept. Proper storage will ensure your seeds are viable as long as they are programmed for by mother nature.
Fresh fruit of Opuntia basilaris Spineless, yet loaded with glochids	Fresh fruit of Opuntia scheeri Spines are longer and denser than the cladodes.	Fresh fruit of Cylindropuntia bigelovii Like it’s stems, loaded with spines and glochids
Fruit of Echinocereus reichenbachii v. albertii showing how it can split open	Fruit of Astrophytum asterias	Fruit of Astrophytum myriostigma showing how it can split open Photo: Tony M.
A complete fruit Copiapoa desertorum	These fruit lose their heads, literally! The dried up flower part drops off and the lower *cup* part of the fruit stays embedded in the wooly apex. Copiapoa hypogaea ‘Lizard Skin’	Fruit of Coleocephalocereus aureus
Contact Jen and Darryl Email: CCN@coronacactus.com Mammillaria guelzowiana		Echinocereus sciurus

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