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#1
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
I have a 10 year old, 8 ft tall pencil cactus that I would like to get rid
of. It just got too big and unwieldy for me inside my home. If you have anything you would like to trade for this plant, or if you would just like to make an offer for it, please email: . Just take out the NOSPAM portion. Thanks |
#2
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
In article ,
"NOSPAM" wrote: I have a 10 year old, 8 ft tall pencil cactus that I would like to get rid of. It just got too big and unwieldy for me inside my home. If you have anything you would like to trade for this plant, or if you would just like to make an offer for it, please email: . Just take out the NOSPAM portion. Thanks You could cut it up and propagate it... :-) K. -- Sprout the Mung Bean to reply... ,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,, http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra |
#3
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
You could cut it up and propagate it..
Just don't get the sap on your skin. It's quite poisonous. The Voice of Experience. Gary Brady Austin, TX |
#5
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
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 Katra wrote: In article , OSPAM (Gary Brady) wrote: You could cut it up and propagate it.. Just don't get the sap on your skin. It's quite poisonous. The Voice of Experience. Gary Brady Austin, TX Just pencil cactus or others? As a general rule, I wear gloves with cactus anyway to keep the fungal dust off of my skin. :-) K. (who was propagating San Pedro cactus last week) |
#6
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
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. The experience is actually my wife's, and the pencil tree is the plant described above. Our tree had grown to a large size and she decided to propogate some of the smaller limbs and get rid of the main plant. She brushed her lower leg against one of the cut trunks and then kneeled down, transferring the sap to her upper leg also. She ended up with two whopping sores that seemed to take about 2 weeks to heal. Gary Brady Austin, TX |
#7
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
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. -- Sprout the Mung Bean to reply... ,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,, http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra |
#8
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
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 |
#9
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8 ft tall pencil cactus
In article ,
Richard Shannon wrote: 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 Thanks for posting this... :-) I am just getting in to cactus collecting, and have about 3 dozen plants so far. Just a start. Got a small greenhouse as well to keep them in. I picked up a euphorbia/African Cactus at wal-mart tonight because it looked so unusual. Sort of a wavy/wrinkled prickly pear type. I will have to either get a good cactus taxonony book or find a good website! I started out looking at the Entheogenic edible cacti, but am branching out as these plants are ever SO fascinating! So, all Euphorbias are toxic? That is good to know as the one I jut bought is ripe for propagation. I'll wear gloves. G K. -- Sprout the Mung Bean to reply... ,,Cat's Haven Hobby Farm,,Katraatcenturyteldotnet,, http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...user id=katra |
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