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01:07:2003 Entry: "Stan : Flying scales"
Flying scales
We have a new Gymnocalycium saglionis and it is a very beautiful cactus. It was found in the back shelf of a local green house and it is about 8" across. Who knows how long it has been living in the green house, and growing bigger every year. It had a circle of weeds around it, and when I began to remove them I noticed that it also had a few scales. Maybe three or four older ones and lots of little ones that were still able to fly. I've never seen scales when they're in their youthful flying stage. They were like little brown flying saucers, and they hadn't bit into the cactus yet. I could poke then with a pen cap and sometimes they would crawl a little and other times they would fly away. When they flew they were so fast that they seemed to vanish into the air. For me, it was really fascinating to find scales in their flying stage because they were actually sort of cute.
Of course I sprayed the cactus with Ortho Rose insecticide, and I sort of felt like I was rescuing the Gymnocalycium saglionis from a major infestation by buying it when I did. This is probably the largest cactus we've ever had (not counting other succulents) and I keep thinking how it is such a beautiful plant. We hope it has lots of flowers in the spring too.