CACTI

These cacti are all from my cacti house at the riverside cafe near Motueka at the top of the south island

Cacti are a family of plants from the new world. They range from the Canadian border to Argentina

All cacti are succulent .

But not all succulents are cacti.

So what is a succulent?

A succulent is a plant that has some part that is used to store water. Leaves, stems, roots and trunks are utilised.

If a plant lives in a dry place and stores water it has to protect it. The cacti use spines,actually modified leaves to very effectively protect the water held in the swolen stem. The stem itself acts as a leaf carrying out photosynthesis.

Another family of plants well represented in the collection are the mainly african euphorbias. While at first glance they look like cacti, this is actually a case of convergent evolution where two quite separate plant familys have evolved the same form to hold and protect water in dry conditions. Euphorbias spikes are actually modified thorns of flower stalks.

Most of this collection was established by the late Garney Drummond of Lower Moutere. The oldest plants date back to the 1950's

The collection was moved to its present location in 2013 Since then most of the plants have florished growing and flowering well.

The most notable plants in the collection are the two huge Golden globes which stand at around 1.2 meters high and well in excess of two meters in circumference.