Garden cactus photos & types of cactii, Cactus plants in gardens of Kerala

Garden cactus plants from gardens of Kerala. The ideal succulent garden plants for a garden which need less care and least supply of water. Cactus, a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their are more than 2000 varieties of  cacti known. Most of the Cactus plants are native to the American desert lands. The plants are supposed to spread over the world through migratory birds eating cacti seeds.

Apart from ornamental plants some types of cacti are grown as boundary walls, food etc. Some of the cactus produces delicious fruits, and those varieties are cultivated commercially for their fruits.

Some cultivars of cactus produces brilliantly coloured flowers and the flowers are seen as an outgrowth from the stems and the spines. Instead of leaves cactus plants have their spines emerging from their succulent stems which often acts as a shield from plant eating animals. Cactus flowers are often night bloomers and most of them have exotic fragrance. The flowers are short lived and may die off by next morning.


 

The fresh spiny tower of Garden succulent, Cactus. These are generally referred under the class Cylindrical cactii. ofcourse the classification depending on the peculiar shape of the plant stem. Apart from cylindrical types a few other are also there depending on their peculiar stem shapes.

More generally depending on the striving conditions cactus can withstand, another classification as Jungle cacti and Desert cacti is also prevailing. Fact is, we may not even figure out a jungle cactus to be one of Cactus family if unfamiliar with them. Jungle cacti are not supposed to have the tough survival properties of desert cactus. Desert cactus clings to the common cactus properties and are easily identifiable. Desert cactus shows the tough striving properties of a desert succulent.

A close view of the hair like spines on the garden cactus cylindrical stem. The spines has extra functions like collecting moisture during night and resisting winds etc, apart from the primary mission of resisting predators. 

General Types of cacti plants, Classification of cactus based on stem shapes

• Angled Cacti - stems are angular with intermittent spines
• Button like cacti - stems are grown short and in the shape of semi circular buttons.
• Columnar cacti - stems grows height like that of lillies
• Short Columnar cacti - Short and stems in columnar shape with spines.
• Cushion like cactus - Spreads on the ground like cushioned stems.
• Cylindrical cactus - cylindrical tall growth of cacti with dense spines. the one in the picture above is cylindrical cactus
• Cylindrical pendent Cactus - Pendent like loose cactus stems.
• Flattened leaf Cactus - Leaf like flattened loose hanging cactus stems.
• Flattened-Paddled cactus - Common desert cactus with flat paddled oval sturdy stems. Seen like ovals connected together and grows to height.
• Geophytic Cactus - Cactus stems growing up like leaves of short shrubs. Like the stems of aloe vera. but so smaller and thinner stems than aloe.
• Globose Cactus - Like a globe fixed on your garden ground. Simply they are shaped like a globe with much spines.
• Globose Cylindrical cacti - A little taller globe. This time the cactus stems growa a little taller like a cylinder.
• Globose- Flattened cactus - Globose cactus flattened to ground like the button cacti.
•  Globose - Pyramidal - The flat globular cacti stem grows a little high like a pyramid.
• Ovoid Cacti - Oval flat cacti stems with lengthy spines.
• prostrate cacti - prostrate like stems
• Shrubby cacti - Similar to columnar cacti, grows like shrubs.
• Shrubby tree cactus - This one grows up like a tree and spreads out its stems like the leaves of a branched tree. 
• Sprawling cacti - Entangled rope like stems spread outs on ground.
• Tree cactus- Tree like taller growth. Stems are clumsy and spiny. 
• Tuberculate cacti - Tube like streatched oval stems with leaf like growth at the tip of each stems.

 More on cactus coming.

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