Katra wrote:

In article ,
Richard Shannon wrote:


True pencil cactus is a (usually) single trunked cactus with interwoven
flat laying spines that grows up the side of mesquite trees and fence
posts in South Texas. Nothing poisonous about it.

What most people call pencil cactus is a spineless, multibranched
euphorbia. It's sap is indeed toxic if ingested and also a skin
irritant, as is the sap of most euphorbias, including poinsetta.

It would be a shame to cut up such a large specimen for propagation.

Richard



Well, if he can find a buyer... :-)

There are too many of those around here. I like to call them "jumping
cactus" and they are a pain in the tailfeathers when I am out picking
dewberries! lol

K.


Oh, yes, some people think of those as pencil cactus as well - jumping
jack, otherwise known as turkey pear - pencil thin, segmented, with
long, barbed spines. That actually is, I believe, an oportuna - related
to prickly pear.

The pencil cactus I speak of is about the same size around as the other
two, but is a single weak stalk that grows much further south of here -
Duval County and south. I've seen them with 3 stalks over three feet
long, but rarely branched. It's spines lie flat in overlapping star
patterns - they are easy to handle without getting pricked. Both this
plant and the one that betdevils your berry picking are true cactus.

True cactus have a clear sap, and though some contain alkaloids you
don't want to consume, most are not toxic. Their spines are adapted
leaves, and no cactus has true leaves. True cactus are native to the
Western Hemishpere.


The plant the original poster has to be rid of is no cactus but a
eurphoria - it has no spines and a milky instead of clear sap. There
will sometimes in good circumstances be true leaves at the ends of the
growing tips.

Euphorbias are a large family of plants with milky sap, most of which
are toxic or at least an irritant. Many of them, like the so-called
cowhorn plant and the pencil plant are thought of by many as cactus, but
they are not. Besides the toxic aspects of their sap, their spines are
adapted flower stalks instead of modified leaves as in cactus. Many
euphorbia in Africa and the Mediterranian, growing in desert areas,
resemble cactus.

See, hobbies can be educational, as well as fun, and healthy too. These
were things I learned with my father when I was was a teenager. He
worked all over Texas in the oil fields and ranches, as cowboy and rough
neck, then as a truck driver when he was older. He had a true green
thumb, loved gardening and growing ornamentals. He collected cactus and
oddities,and after buying some euphorbias in Corpus Christi at a
nursery, we got some books from the library and found out all about
them. I've never forgotten those facts.

So if you are stuck in dry country with water, you can chew the insides
of cactus to survive, even if the sap is bitter. You can't do that with
euphorbia.

Richard