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Echinocereus fendleri rectispinus SB456    
I’ve not seen this before. This plant has flowered normally in the past. Alone among cacti (if I remember correctly), the plants of the genus Echinocereus put out flowers by pushing the incipient bud through the skin above an areole. Every process of flowering and fruiting therefor leaves messy scar tissue on the epidermis when it’s all done. What you’re looking at in this picture is the result of a bud never making it through the skin of the plant. The bud developed normally (I assume) inside the plant and the flower is now forming. The emerging flower is severely tearing the plant. Mother Nature sometimes does bad evolutionary experiments. (I assume this is some sort of very imperfect analogy to an ectopic pregnancy in animals.)    (32/32)   

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