Description:

The botanist Michelangelo Console from Palermo created the name of this type referring to the similarity of the fruit to that of the bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus. It takes the form of a more than 4 metre-tall tree with branches beginning at its base. The blue-green trunk and branches are strongly glaucus due to the bloom which covers the younger part of the plant, with 5 or 6 veins with large areas where small black thorns emerge.. White flowers grow at the beginning of the summer. The fruits, small blue-black berries. 1-2 cms. wide, are edible both fresh or dried like grapes and are known by the natives as “ garambullos”. The photo shows a splendid “crested” example. Sometimes, for unknown reasons, the growth of the plant does not always follow the normal axis but develops a fan shape on one level. This anomoly known as “ fascination” or “ cresting” is rather typical of succulent plants, giving the Mirtillocactus geometrizans an unusual and fascinating aspect: a true vegetative sculpture. These uncommon examples are much sought-after by collectors who are prepared to pay high prices in order to possess one.

Cultivation:

In gardens one usually finds young plants normally reproduced from seeds. Crested plants are reproduced by scion from branches of old plants. It seems that all the examples come from a single crested plant in a collection in the south of France. Exposure to full sunlight encourages the glaucus colouring of the stem. The plants also likes a fairly rich soil. Attention should be paid to minimum winter temperatures. If they fall below 10 degrees the plant does not die but the epidermis is irremediably covered by dark marks which eventually becomes cork. The Mirtillocactus geometrizans is a vigorous plant and for this characteristic that young plants grown from seed or scions of rooted branches are used for innesting other cactuses.

Reproduction: Grown from seeds or scions of branches.