crylady, Hmm... that defintely doesn't sound like a brain cactus lol. I'm not sure what that would be. Do you have a photo you can post, maybe someone can help you identify it? I didn't see a form when I clicked on the link to rjm710's URL he posted... I saw "latin name" on the left side near the middle of the screen and "common name" on the right, where you can type in either the latin name of the cactus or the common name. It seemed to work ok for me, I didn't see anything about ICQ? Did you click on anything right after you clicked the URL or no? rjm710, You're welcome lol. That sounds like that's all I can do, just wait until it blooms. I find that alot of cacti and succulents that you buy from "the cacti collection" or "the succulent" collection are mislabeled like crazy. I found two differents labels in two different pots, but they were the same plant! I returned one of the aloes/gaterias/whatever it is lol back to Lowes. I downsized my collection you could say... Elizabeth

I find that this Cactiguide.com site is a good one to get started looking for something on.. Half way down the page it has a "Identifying by cactus habit" , and then it is nose to the grindstone checking things out till you find what you are looking for. One can also do it by family. I do not always find their picture spot on because their is a lot of variation with in the pictures. I will then take a name and google it, go to the images and search further. This is often very boring and tedious if you are looking for immediate gratification. two days ago, I was looking for a astragalus species (3 - 4thousand in the astragalus family ) and all I had was a speckled seed pod and a location. No picture of the plant till afterwards . It took me about 6 hours but I got it . I did that differently. I went to the LBJ wildflower site and went through their 6 pages of astragalus in their database and looked for ones that their description mentioned New Mexico, and then went to the Gov. database linked on their page and it has map of the ranges (since I knew where it was collected) and the map can zero in to county distributions. If the right county or one close by was mentioned, I then googled images (also linked on the LBJ site) of that species to see if they had photos of the seed pod. I was lucky that it was a very distinctive seed pod. I did this with all the species that were from central New Mexico. I think there were over 20-30. It was Astragalus lentiginosus douglas ex hooker var diphysis. I sent the info to the woman who gave me the seed (NOT the woman who collected it). She sent me a photo of the plant after the fact that she got from the collector and I was right! I really felt I deserved a pat on my back. I was then able to find a photo of a population a couple miles from the collectors house and it was an exact match. I sent the info to the collector. It was a hard ID but it sure feels good to do it right. Keep your eye out for different Databases. You will get the hang of it if you just try to do a bit of detective work. Here is a link that might be useful: Cactiguide.com habit search

Yes, mesembs, I have no idea what "Created in Japan" was referring to. Species originated in Japan? Hybrid developed in Japan? Maybe just some marketing gimmick to make people think they were in the presence of something rare and exotic from a far away place. I'm going to see if the grower R Z Nursery has a website. Maybe that will offer up some clues. These 2 came from Mission Hills Nursery so they are just the middle man. For the most part Mission Hills takes really good care of their plants. They now have put up some cloth over the succulents so they aren't getting beaten up by harsh direct sunshine on our non-overcast days. I was hoping to find one of those H. truncatas but they didn't have any. Maybe next Spring. I've liked the looks of the Astrophytum for awhile so since these were only $7, I like supporting our local small independent nurseries AND I couldn't just leave there spending $2 (right?), I decided to get the 2nd plant as well. All of them whether 3, 4, or 5 lobes had the identical tags saying Astrophytum myr. 'Onzuka'. Can anyone tell me, please, what "myr." refers to? Some botanical terminology, I'm guessing. Thanks, Tyler

I change my mind about the Mammillaria id. I think you've got a Thelocactus;). The more I look at it the less and les it looks like a Mammillaria. When it blooms post pics please;). I kept looking at you cactus because I didn't feel 100% with the Mammillaria id, and I noticed those orange spots. I circled them. Don't panic or anything just keep your eye on it. Wouldn't do anything yet. Do you notice them anywhere else or is it just those two? I get this sometimes on my cactus when it's damp and cold. I believe it's a fungus. Just keep your little guy's environment warm and dry. Also good light and airflow. If it spreads you can put neem oil on it. Neem oil is an oil so if you do spray keep the cactus away from the sun because it will burn your plant. So best to do at night.