Visited the greenhouse in Springfield and saw a cactus I thought was fake

I was walking through the arid plant section last Tuesday and spotted this bright pink flower on a small round cactus, figured it was plastic. The volunteer there told me it was a real Mammillaria and that some flower for just a single day. Has anyone else been surprised by a plant they thought was artificial?

2 comments

2 Comments

cora84216h ago

That Mammillaria story reminds me of a time at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. I saw a huge stapelia plant with these star-shaped, maroon flowers that looked like felt. I actually reached out to touch one because I was sure it was fake. The texture was so weird and fuzzy, but it was totally real. It's wild how some plants evolve to look almost artificial to us. I guess our idea of what a flower should look like is pretty narrow.

miller.tara17h ago

Plastic flowers look way too perfect to be real. That volunteer was probably messing with you.