Cactus Euphorbia Obesa Hook. f.

Today I present you with a succulent that until very recently I knew practically nothing. This is Euhorbia obesa Hook. f. It can be known under different vulgar names such as obese cactus, basketball or baseball pilots. We can locate it in South Africa. The reason why it can be called “ball” is quite obvious, when it is small it is a completely round sphere and is not until a few years later, as it grows it acquires a rather conical shape, between twenty and thirty centimeters high by eleven in diameter. It’s a rather lonely plant, rarely has little plants that we can use to create new specimens.

It has no spines, so if you want to plant it in the garden, it is important that you do it in a place where there are bushes and that the ground is abundant with the stones. The body’s color will vary, and this can be attributed to the fact that in their natural state they use coloration as a form of camouflage to potential enemies. They may be greyish green, iron grey, greenish blue, greenish brown, or may even have transverse bands with dark red hues. It also has eight deep-marked vertical ribs that can be used up to thirteen in time. When young, they also have very small leaves that are lost as they grow.

As for flowering, it does not occur until the succulent is not between five and eight years old. But it has to be said, it’s something that’s going to be very difficult to do unless you have two specimens of this species, and now I’m telling you why. It turns out to be a dioecious plant, that is, that you need a female Euphorbia and a male Euphorbia for pollination. Once the female has been pollinated, it will produce seven millimeters fruit, and within it there are three two centimeters seeds each.

It likes to be in places where he touches the sun directly, but also appreciates being in places where it has a lot of illumination but no sun. It can withstand temperatures up to ten degrees negative as long as the substrate is completely dry. We have to irrigate moderately, especially during the summer months, the rest of the year, especially in winter, must be kept dry. In spring you can water once every fortnight, in summer once a week and in autumn, at the latest in October, only once. Then, as I said before, with the cold, the soil must be dry.

It doesn’t have many complications of diseases or pests that might affect it, all you have to watch out for is overwater, which could produce root stinking.