These are seedlings of Astrophytum asterias cv miracle kabuto.
I sowed seeds 20/09/06.
Recently I selected good ones, showing miracle kabuto characters.
The current size is around 5 cm.
They will be whiter soon.

they look great hanazono!! what is the characteristics of the miracle kabuto?

Darren
Two special flecking related asterias monstrosas are super kabuto and miracle kabuto.
Two of them were found in imported plants by Mr. Takeo, a Japanese cactus nursery man in 1980s.
Super kabuto is spreaded all over the world and well known but miracle kabuto is not.
The gene of super is quite positive and almost all super seeds will be super but miracle will not be.
The character of miracle is cherry brossom petal shaped fine fleckings which would start to apperar aroung 3 years old.
The attached photo is one of miracle kabuto. Numbers of white fleckings will be increased soon.
Super kabuto is dwarf, maximum size is 10 cm or so but miracle kabuto will grow by 20 cm and life is around 20 years.

wow it realy is an amazing looking plant, a 20cm plant would be quite spectacular. have you ever seen one this big? is it typical for asterias to live to only 20 years and how big is the largest variety?

regards
Darren

Darren
I saw several asterias which were around 20 cm diameter.
Yes, the typical life of asterias is around 20 years. The shape of old asterias is quite different from normal one.
I think around 10 years old should be best looking.

Many times of crossing will make a dwarf asterias. To improve this problem, you can cross with "Kaies F1".
Miracle kabuto is the largest asterias and grown by 20 cm.
Hanazono