Thousands of Gorgeous Cactii Succulents Explored in Great Details Rare Trendy Mutated Variegated

Hi guys, my name is Sean and welcome to the world of cacti and succulents. We unpacked so many extremely rare and gorgeous aeroids in the last episode that it's a breath of fresh air to unravel a different kind of plant group today. As you can see in my recently desert scaped front yard here, which by the way is next week's episode, I am a rookie when it comes to cacti and succulents. Which is why in this episode, we brought along a special host, Brad from Next World Exotics. We were going to film at the nursery but decided that Chatuchak market would be a better choice. This is because dozens of specialist vendors proudly display their best products here, giving you lucky viewers a front row seat to see these marvelous gems within a short window. Brad unravels one botanical wonder after another, sharing their ornamental value as well as unusual but gorgeous mutations that is highly prized by collectors. This episode is sponsored by Palm Street, a plant life shopping app based in the United States run by a passionate team that's dedicated to provide fun, fair and innovative way to shop for plants online. We will discover more about this interesting business throughout the episode. I work with Next World Exotics and what I do is I source a lot of our plants here in Thailand. Next World Exotics is our retail arm in the US and we also do exporting business to business from Thailand to other businesses in the US of both cactus and rare aroids. And we're here to discuss cacti succulents. Why are they important in the market today? So cactus and succulents have really been exploding popularity recently in the US market. They've really begun to catch on for a lot of people that were previously maybe into aeroids have now really moved into the cactus and succulents for a couple of reasons. One of the big reasons is that the aeroid market has become so saturated with so many of the same plants and people are just tired of seeing the same things where there's a lot of new cactus and succulents that are new and interesting and it's just something new for people to get into. Plus they don't take up as much space. They're slow growing. And when people are running out of space for these giant monstera, these giant philodendron you might be able to fit 10, 15 cactus or more in the space where one Thai constellation And they're very easy to care for. A lot of people struggle to care for the aeroids. They require high humidity, constant watering and a lot of places in America, they can only be grown indoors in very controlled environments. Whereas the cactus are much more forgiving of the environment they're grown in. They don't require as much watering. They don't require as much fertilizing. They don't, they're not as bad with pest issues and stuff like that. So they're a much easier type of plant for people to care for, especially beginners who are just getting into the industry. Are they generally easy to care for? Most people find the cactus and succulents very easy to care for. In fact, I'm sure a lot of people watching this video have had experience in the past where they've had a succulent type of plant maybe growing outside in their garden or maybe it popped up somewhere outside their house and they noticed like a leaf, some things have fallen off. And that one leaf actually grows in a whole new plant even though it hasn't been watered for pretty much sitting on the ground all of a sudden there's a little plant growing there. And cactus are very similar with that too. I mean, they can go a very long time without water and still survive. So they're very, very easy for beginners to care for. We have a huge diversity here. So, you know, you really got to look into each species specifically, but how do you not kill them? So kind of conversely with aeroids versus cactus, I think the best way to not kill cactus is to not overcare for it, which is something that, you know, I think people have a tendency to do. They want to water it too much or too worried about, oh my God, are the conditions perfect? Like, does it look like it's not dry enough? Like, oh my God, I knocked the pot over, the roots came out, is it going to die? So it's actually, they do well with neglect. It's really funny. So like I said, we export a lot as well to businesses. And when you first import cactus, you don't water them for weeks on end until they actually begin to grow some roots, which obviously something you definitely couldn't do with aeroids. I travel a lot. You know, even though I am based here in Thailand, I go to other countries sourcing plants as well. And also I do it for a hobby. I like to go on trips, traveling, motorcycle trips. And with my aeroids, I actually have to give them to a friend of mine to care for, even when we're going away for two weeks. My cactus, I just leave and they're fine. I come back two weeks later. They haven't had water. They're no worse for the wear and they're happy as could be. So cactus are also very slow growing plants. In fact, sometimes like some of these gymno, this could be three to four years old. To get from a seed to the size that maybe about that big, something like that, that could take two years. Cactus and succulents are actually very popular in Japan, which I think is pretty well known, famed for having small living spaces. And one of these reasons is because they can fit so many and they don't have to worry about them outgrowing their space because they do grow slowly. And another nice thing about that is that the cactus that you get with the pattern that it is or the variegation that you like will continue to look like that for a very long time. It's not like aeroids where they'll grow out a brand new leaf that maybe has no variegation or it's over white. And it doesn't have that look that you really liked when you bought the plant. So some of the most popular types nowadays off the top of my head would be the Gymnocalycium. You also have Astrophytum. Euphorbia are getting more and more popular. Areocarpus are becoming very popular as well. So here's like a wide range of Gymnocalycium. And it's a nice kind of intro to start because there's going to be a wide range here of beginner-friendly ones and also some of the more collector varieties. The Gymnocalycium is a genus of around 70 cacti species native to South America. These cacti are appreciated for their small size, mutations that produce dramatic colours, and their adorable flowers. They're valued not only for their ornamental appeal but also for their resilience and adaptability. So over here on this tray are these smaller ones. A lot of these are actually quite similar especially to things that look like this or these very over-coloured ones like this and this that are actually very similar to what you might find in your local hardware store. They're not going to be very expensive. They're not high up on the list of collector's items because what the collectors are looking for are really nice, beautiful patterns, balanced variegation, things that look really unique. So if we take, for example, this one here, this is more of a collector's one. It's also a Gymnocalycium but it's an LB hybrid. Both of these actually are. And you can see how there's a really beautiful pattern, really symmetrical lines, stuff like that. And that's one of the things people tend to look for in the Gymnocalycium that gets more of the collector's varieties. It'll be a combination of certain types of colours or more desirable like bright pinks that are balanced out with some dark colours for some nice contrast and then really, really balanced symmetrical patterns. Some of them will have a very geometrical pattern especially when viewed straight down from the top. Are these mutations, hybrids or how do they look this way? Are they like this from nature? Yeah, so they're really just sort of like any variegated plant. They start off as a mutation. The classic Gymnocalycium that grows in Peru which is where they're native South American to some of those countries are basically like this but all green. Okay. And then you have some that wind up with some colours randomly. And then through selective breeding they've made ones with colours to have certain types of looks that they're going for. Like this particular one here is a T-Rex hybrid. One very characteristic telltale sign of the T-Rex hybrid is these bright pinks and bright purple colours oftentimes with some stark contrast and darker colours. And it's through selective breeding they take a regular darker coloured green Gymnocalycium with some of these higher colour pink ones and stuff like that and they get these kind of looks. So a lot of the new name cultivars are being made in Asia. You have a lot coming out of Thailand. It's actually one of the epicentres of them now which is sort of surprising because you wouldn't think Thailand has the climate for it. People generally think cactus need dry air. They don't like humid environments but it's actually quite surprising how well they do in these humid environments here. In fact most of the gardens and greenhouses here they do water them once a week. I know I said previously they could easily go for two weeks, three weeks without getting water. They do water them once a week in these high humidity greenhouses with plastic tarping all on the side and the top and they do great. They grow fantastic then. So Gymnocalcium can be propagated in a couple of ways. So actually we have a couple examples of it here. What you'll notice is that they will grow offshoots on their own that eventually when they get big enough they can be taken off and just pot it themselves and grow and they'll root out and grow just like another cactus. The other way is through pollination where the flower opens and you pollinate it with pollen from another cactus. One of the nice things is that with the popping out is that they'll do that naturally on their own. You can have just one cactus. You don't need to have multiples. They don't need to be pollinated any which way. They'll pop out on their own over time. Some will do it more, some will do it less. So you can potentially buy one and a year later maybe you have 10 and they won't all look the same. So you'll notice here is that these are growing out of high color spot. So the spot here they're growing out of it has no contrast, it's all colored. So the pup that grows out the offshoot tends to be all colored or over colored. This one here is growing out of a part that has contrast color and it also has some of the green. And if you, I don't know if you can see on the video but if you come in and look on this bottom side you'll see there is some green contrast in the pup that's growing off. So like a lot of sort of similar to aeroids if you have a node that's growing out of an all color stripe on the stem it will be over colored or all color. Whereas if you have a node that's growing out of a stripe half a stripe and half non-colored part on the stem then you'll have a much more balanced plant. So this one for example is also gonna be one of the more beginner friendly more affordable types. But these really pink colors they're becoming more common nowadays. But so a lot of people really like the really pink colors. You'll notice if you go to your local hardware store a lot of the ones you'll find are gonna be the yellows and the oranges and you won't really find ones with this really nice neon pink color. And you can find some nice really cool neon pink colored ones that are actually beginner friendly and affordable. And a lot of people are like they really, really enjoy that because it's just something you don't see very often. Now you said they are friendly for beginners because they're easier to care for? No, they're beginner friendly in terms of cost. Whereas opposed to some of those previous ones like for example, I can point this one out again like some of this type with these really high contrast patterns very, very geometrical like symmetrical patterns are gonna be more expensive. This is more beginner friendly because it's not, if you look, you can see it's not super symmetrical. The pattern's kind of splotchy and messy everywhere. So it's not gonna be as expensive. It'll be more expensive than maybe perhaps just a basic yellow one or orange one but it's not gonna be super expensive like a lot of the collectors want and it still has a really interesting unique look. Yeah, well that one actually does look more expensive somehow. Yeah, yeah. Even if somebody doesn't know that much but I can actually come up and take a look and say like, wow, look at this. Especially if you look straight down from the top you can see it has this beautiful symmetrical pattern and like this one here as well. If you look straight down from the top, I mean, you can almost see it's like a beautiful star on the top. And that's what's really desirable for a lot of these people, these beautiful, the symmetry. Yeah. So a lot of Gymnocalcium also come in almost a different type. So this is also just a type of Gymnocalcium mihavaniaceae that we were talking about before but this one's called a Monstrose and all types of cactus mostly will have a Monstrose form and that just basically means they're growing in an irregular way. So most of these types of cacti that you see Astrophytum, the Gymnocalcium, they have Monstrose forms and there's some called Transformers and they just grow really crazy and weird which is why they're called Monstrose. You mean weird colors or weird? Weird shape. Like you notice the structure doesn't look like this Gymnocalcium does. So it doesn't have a main parent plant inside like in the center? It does but even that main parent, so even one with a main parent plant normally would not have pups growing all over like that. They would have pups just growing down the sides like this. Okay. So it wouldn't grow in this giant, massive, weird clump. So that's called a Monstrose. Later on, like here's another example of a Monstrose. Okay. This is a type of Gymnocalcium as well. It's a T-Rex Monstrose. And you can see it just looks like this crazy, weird clump. So this is also another type of Gymnocalcium. It's just a T-Rex hybrid and a Monstrose form. And you can see the Monstrose form just looks weird and crazy and that's why they call it Monstrose. But these like forms, they don't really exist or they don't survive in nature, do they? I think there probably are examples of it in nature. They would survive just fine. This Monstrose form is not any weaker than a regular type. It's not like an over-variegated plant that's weak or anything like that. It's not any weaker. And you can actually kind of, you know, you can eventually take some of these pups off if you wanted to. Most people don't with the Monstrose because when it's a Monstrose, it's actually more expensive. So these are Gymnocalcium, like we've been talking about. And these are named cultivars. So they're still the same species, the same genus, everything like that. But what they do is they can, just like with Aeroids and the plants, when they breed one selectively enough to get a certain look, certain color, they can register and it becomes a named cultivar. So this is one that we talked about before is a type, is a Black Widow. You see, it has almost no green. It's very dark color, dark purple, sometimes almost black. People really like it. This one here is called an OG Pink and it's bred to, all the OG Pink's going to have that kind of pink hue, that kind of color. Another one that's becoming popular is the Sepia. Okay. And I'm guessing that they named it that because it has those kind of Sepia tones that you might see in graphic design. Oh, I need to Google that. Interesting. So these are also Gymnocalcium mihivaniaceae, same like the color Gymnocalcium that we were showing you before. And this type here is called a Crystata. And basically it means crested is what it actually means. And they have a crested form. They don't grow in the traditional circular form. And these are also called Anermous. So Anermous in cactus means it has no spine. So if you see these, you can touch all of these. You can rub these. These don't have spines like some of these other Gymnocalcium here. It is a Gymnocalcium, but it's just called a Gymnocalcium Anermous. And this case is a Gymnocalcium Crystata Anermous because it's the crested look and no spines. And Anermous cactus with no spines are more expensive and more desirable because they're less common than the ones with spines. So this is another popular type of cactus species that's getting more and more desirable in America and more in demand. These are called Euphorbia francoseae. And what we're looking at here is three different generations. This is the more common one that is kind of started out. You'll see the leaves are a bit bigger. It's a bit messier. It's a bit more ruffled. I don't know if you'd say not as interesting just for some people, especially these are very popular in Japan where they like things that are very neat and perfect. They've started doing selective breeding to get a nicer form. So if you move up here, this is generation two form. You'll see that notice the leaves are more compact. The plants are a bit smaller. They don't look as messy. They look neater and cleaner. And then they've kept on with more selective breeding the gen twos together and they come out to this gen three type. And with the gen three type, there's a couple of things that you'll notice is one, they're also neater, more compact again, and they get this maple leaf looking shape that you don't find in the generation one. And you're only just beginning to sort of find generation two. Other things that can make euphorbia more desirable or less desirable is whether or not the veining is the exact same color as the leaf. That makes it more desirable. So when you have a vein that's the exact same color, it's becoming more desirable trait. Whereas if you look back at this generation one, you'll see that a lot of times the veining is a lighter color or a darker color and it's just a different color than the actual leaf. Right. So this resembles their original form. And did you say where they were from? The euphorbia are originally from Madagascar. Like a lot of actually caudex plants, they originally come from Madagascar. A lot of other caudex plants come from Socotra and Yemen and stuff like that. Okay. Interesting because this is super unrefined and then as you go down the generations, they become a little bit more sophisticated and like domesticated. Yeah, exactly. For that perfect compact species and really, really just neat and pretty look. So this is called Euphorbia tularensis. And just like with the Euphorbia francosii, they're breeding, selected breeding for different generations. So these ones here in the front, these larger ones with just the all green leaves, it's not that interesting color. These are generation one and these are actually going to be the cheapest variety. Now, these are a newer generation of the Euphorbia tularensis. You'll notice that you'll have some darker colors in instead of all green. And you also see, again, they're becoming more compact, just like a tighter, prettier form and then becomes more expensive as the collectors are looking for that particular type. But how do people display them? Do they just put them in pots? And are they just collector's items? So do they kind of landscape or style with them somehow? Well, most people that are growing these, I mean, they're generally growing them inside their home. So usually, yeah, for collectors. So they'll have like a little display area where they keep a lot of their plants. For me personally, I have some of these cactus and I keep a couple of them on my desk, which tends to be the smaller ones that I keep on my desk that are closer. And then some of the bigger ones, I'll keep just on a shelf and things like that, which you can appreciate them from further away where some of these you want to be a bit closer to appreciate. Nice. And just my personal observation, because they're slow growing, you can elevate their look by selecting the right pot for it. Selecting the right pot and the right medium. Like for example, if you see these with the higher contrast between the color of the leaf and the growing medium makes it actually pop out of the plant, pop out and look a lot nicer. And the same thing with the pot. You see some really interesting pots here at Chattachock. And if you go to the cactus show, some of these really, really beautiful pots that really elevate the look. In fact, all of the cactus that are in the shows being judged are in these really amazing, intricate pots. One of the best places to find a lot of these cactus if you're interested, I mean, not just cactus, aeroids and a lot of other stuff as well. I believe some sellers there even sell pots and some other interesting stuff is on Palm Street. It's a great new app that you see a lot of live sellers there. Whereas formerly a lot of people might've been on Instagram or something like that. A lot of the live sellers are now on Palm Street. And there's a lot of reasons for that. It's just simply a much cleaner, better functioning app. You don't have to worry about a lag. You know, when people were bidding on Instagram with all these in live selling shows, there's a lot of lag. So it was very hard to time your bid if you're trying to do it for the last second, hope you win. On Instagram, you had to kind of guess at what the lag would be and hope it got through. Palm Street doesn't have that lag. The collectors really like it because it's much easier to get the bid in when you want. You don't have to worry about lagging. You don't have to worry about the lives getting shut down because there's too many people on and it gets laggy. And the sellers really like it as well because it has built-in features for billing. People can buy it directly from the live. They buy directly through the app. They don't have to get billed later or anything like that. So it's got a lot of great things going for it. Plus, one really nice thing about Palm Street for collectors is you might know about a certain live seller and you log on, you want to see their live on Instagram, but you don't know about anybody else that's selling at the same time that might be live that might have plants you're interested in. On Palm Street, you'll go to the app. You'll go to the page that shows all the live sellers and you might see 10 other people that are doing lives at the exact same time that you never knew of and might want to check out. So it's a really great new app that if you're not familiar with it, I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're looking for some of these cactus. Ideally, I'd hope you check out Next World Exotics because that's where I'm from and I'm here in this heat sweating for you. So definitely check us out, but you'll find a lot of other great live sellers there as well. That's nice. But it's important to note that it is based in the US and it's only for American users. Yes, it's only for the American market and you'll only find sellers from the US there as well. What you'll notice is that when you go to a lot of the live sellers, they have a really strong sense of community. It's not just with the buyer and the seller who know each other and become familiar, but a lot of the buyers become very friendly with one another. Even though they've never met in person, it's like they know each other. They joke at each other. They have inside jokes and they create these really, really nice communities, especially when you go to some of the bigger live sellers who cultivate a big following and do a lot of fun games. So you see a lot of live sellers. We do a lot of giveaways at Next World Exotics and a lot of roulette wheel types of things and just things to make it have fun. And another thing that's really interesting you'll notice is sometimes a lot of the different people, the different buyers, they may buy a plant that somebody else really wanted and they lost out on the auction. They just missed it and somebody else got it. And I'm like, oh man, I really wanted to make... Listen, when I can get a cutting of it, I'll make a cutting for you and I'll send it to you. Don't worry about it. And you see that happen all the time, which I think is so, so sweet. The Astrophytum is a genus of cactus native to the desert regions of Mexico and parts of Southwestern United States. They're highly prized as ornamental plants due to their distinctive appearance and relatively low maintenance requirements. Comprising of only four to six species in the genus, the Astrophytum display a wide variety of gorgeous mutations to please our eyes. So let's just start with what we have up here. So just like aeroids, cactuses can be variegated as well. So what these are called is Astrophytum asterius. And these are variegated varieties. This yellow is a type of variegation. You can also find some with like an orange variegation and some of their young may have an even orange or reddish variegation sometimes, but they do often tend to grow out of that and wind up with all yellow variegation. It's very rare to find a larger one with that orange or red variegation. We do find them sometimes, but they're very, very rare. And just like with the aeroids, what makes the variegated Astrophytum more desirable is two things. The brightness of the color. So if it has more of a dull color like this, it's not gonna be as desirable. And also how well balanced. Like when you have very nice balancing, like contrast between the yellow and green and a lot like striping, it's more desirable as opposed to some you'll find that just have like chunks, like half the cactus is yellow or big chunks that are just solid color. So here's an example of one, this type of solid color variegation on it. I mean, this one also has low variegation to begin with, but these big chunks of solid color are gonna be less desirable than the stripy variegation, the splashy variegation. So all of these here are types of Astrophytum. Even this weird, crazy looking thing here is a type of Astrophytum. So, you know, some of these have these kind of puffed cotton ball looking things. And what those are called are called Oeboes. And just like anything, they can make a cactus more desirable, less desirable. The bigger the Oeboe is, the fluffier it is, the more desirable it is. It's like someone glued them on. Yeah, they're so pretty. I mean, I kind of want to just go up there and start petting them and stuff like that. Something else that makes some of the Astrophytum more desirable, when you talk about the non-variegated ones, is the pattern on it. So you have different types. When you see ones like this with these strong Vs and even ones like this and like this, it's called a V-type. And then they have a super V-type, which has just tons of beautiful, beautiful Vs, perfect, symmetrical, everything like that. And that tends to be more desirable than something that's really messy. It's not a very noticeable pattern. Do they put up pups like the Gymnocalcium or they don't? They don't pup as much like the Gymnocalcium do. Every once in a while, you may find one that's growing sort of like this one, like a second one out of it or something like that, or a third. This one? Yeah, exactly. You may find something like this, but they don't pup that often. You can also actually will find sometimes some that do have pups growing on them, but you don't find them very often. So they don't pup nearly as often as the Gymnocalcium and they're much more, they're going to be propagated more so by pollination. I have found a few that have pups. It's usually often over like a Monstrose type of form because it's not very common. All of these here are also other types of Astrophytum cactus. Some of them are not Asterius. For example, this is an Astrophytum Mario Stigma. It's another type of Astrophytum. And as you can see, they come in green. They also come in variegation. And again, just like with the Asterius, the more splashy the variegation, the more desirable it is versus just the straight blocks of color. This one looks very different, but it's also a type of Astrophytum. This is also a type of Astrophytum Asterius actually, just like this, but this is called a Kiko. And the Kiko has these weird points and almost sort of like a scaly look. And they actually have an Astrophytum Kiko lizard skin that gets a really, really scaly look. What are these? So these are just baby Astrophytum Asterius. And as you can see, if you recall, I mentioned some of them when they're very young might have orange variegation, stuff like that. Most likely, this will grow out to have yellow variegation as it gets older. You can also find Astrophytum Asterius that have this kind of like star shape. And as they get bigger, it almost begins to look a bit like an octopus. Now you can see the patterns on those really is not that interesting. And so these will not be as expensive as ones with a beautiful V striping or the heavy white all over. They're gonna be more affordable. And also you might find something like that at your local hardware store, whereas you're not gonna find something with like these tight. And even this is kind of a loose V pattern, but they're really tight V patterns that you're not gonna find locally. You're gonna have to go to collectors, sellers to find those kinds of things. So here we have a few different types of popular cactus. They're becoming more and more desirable, more collectors in the market. So we were talking about Astrophytum Asterius before, which is what these are as well. And this is also type of Astrophytum Asterius, but it is a monstrose. And you see it has this crazy form. It's not just growing normal. And then it makes it more desirable with that monstrose form that a lot of people look and it's much more rare. This is, even though it's small, you can see this beautiful V pattern in this one. And you can see it in this as well. These are some of these super V types that, again, these are the types of things that makes the Astrophytum more desirable. For example, you have this one here where it's just kind of messy. It's got a little bit of the Vs, but it's not very beautiful. It's not very clean. It's a bit messy. And if you compare that to something like this, even though it's small, as you can see this beautiful symmetry, perfect Vs. And this, even though much smaller, is much more expensive and desirable than something like this. Sorry, just to bring this one out here, just as an example, this one is also a type of Astrophytum that we've been looking at a lot of the Astrophytum before, the Asterius, stuff like this. This is an Astrophytum Fucuru. The Fucuru type has all these different type of lines and lacy kind of look. And just like with any other feature that you'll find in the cactus, this is a rarer feature that makes it much more expensive. And this one is tall. Is it normal or is it different? It's normal. So the Murio Stigma, which is a type of Murio Stigma, like you see this one as well, they tend to grow up more taller, whereas the Astrophytum Mysterius tend to go more of a round shape. Okay. So it's just they're both in the Astrophytum genus, but they're just different types. And the Murio Stigma will grow taller and they also have that star shape kind of look. So they'll continuously grow taller and taller, while these guys will grow rounder and rounder. Rounder. I mean, they'll become more like a big ball, whereas these will become more like all like that. Do they get huge or is this like close to their maximum? No. I've seen the Astrophytum Mysterius like this about four to five times this size. So I've seen balls kind of like this. But one thing to note is that when they do get that big, they can kind of sort of randomly just go down and kind of die. I don't know if they're getting towards the end of their natural lifespan or whatever it is, but it's just slightly more common if you have a really, really large one that it might unknowingly crash on you for seemingly inexplicable reasons. And do they like put out any like pups or anything before they die? Not usually, no. Like I mentioned before, the Astrophytum Mysterius, they don't often pup. It's very rare to see them pupping. So you'll usually have to just pollinate them through flower. These are called Areocarpus. These are very popular in Taiwan. They're also, I believe, native from certain places actually in the American desert, I believe. And I think South America, but don't quote me on that one. So just like anything else, the Areocarpus have different types named cultivars. They have Godzilla, which this is a type of Godzilla. It has a very particular look. So these are all some Areocarpus, but they're just basically hybrids. They might be like Kikobuton hybrids. These look kind of like Kikobuton hybrids. Some of this looks more like a Godzilla-ish hybrid. None of these are pure species, but you can see that these are variegated varieties. One thing to note about these though, and it's actually something if you're just getting into cactus collecting to understand is, now these are grafted. What grafted means is they've taken a stem from a different type of cactus and they attach this to it. And what that does, it helps this grow stronger and faster, which a lot of growers that want to propagate them and grow them bigger will graft them because they grow, they're healthier and they grow stronger that way, but they are less valuable because of that. When a cactus is grafted, it becomes less valuable because basically essentially it's no longer pure and the collectors don't want grafted cactuses. They'll grow quicker. They're good for when you want to pollinate it and you want to propagate it, but you'll also notice the form changes when they're grafted. I don't know if you notice, I don't have a non-grafted here we want to point out, but when you'll see when these become grafted, these become almost bulbous, the leaves. And that's very common in a real carpus when they're grafted. So if you're ever looking at a real carpus and you see like bulbous shape in the leaves and this kind of almost like, not watery, but almost like fluid filled kind of look, it's usually a telltale sign that it's a grafted a real carpus. So if you're buying one, you should ask the seller because it will make it a fraction of the value. If these were non-grafted, these would be about five times more expensive than they are as a grafted version. Okay. Now, when you're talking about grafting, is it within the same genus? No, it's a completely different type of genus. Wow, they can do that? Yep. Very, very interesting. These here are various different types of a real carpus, which is a species we've been talking about before that the Godzilla is one of the cultivars. And here we have a lot of different types and species here and a lot of them have names, stuff like that. But this particular type, and this is also the same type, is called a Kochubionis. I can spell it, but I can't say it. And they tend to stay flat and grow wider out like this one is doing here. That's cool. And some of them with these wide leaves, it's called an Elephantias. It's actually more desirable with this wide leaf type. This kind of like textured wide leaf type is more desirable. And again, just like with the other real carpus, and actually a lot of other types of cactus, they will also graft these as well, both this type and this type to make them grow quicker. Here we have some different types of real carpus. This is a Lloydii x Godzilla. A Lloydii is also another desirable type, not quite as expensive and desirable as the Godzilla cultivar is, but it also is a desirable type. This one is a Trigonus. This tends to be a much cheaper type than the Godzilla. And I'm guessing that they formed this clumping habit. They grow like... This is how they grow, exactly. Even as they get bigger, they kind of just kind of grow out sideways and they get taller, but they don't get like massively tall. They kind of just spread out wide and then they slowly kind of grow taller as well. The Trigonus ones will get a bit taller than the Godzilla types. And these don't really get tall at all. But these do tend to have almost like a big caudex, almost like underneath. You can kind of see it here. So what we have here are called Haworthia. And this is another market that's just sort of beginning to catch on a little bit in America. It's not huge there yet. It's big in Taiwan. It's big in China. It's now becoming big in Thailand and it's starting to catch on a little bit in America. So if you're looking for some of the next things, the next trends that might start to catch on, you might begin to see more live sellers doing in America. Haworthias are prized for their visual appeal, especially when sunlight or artificial light passes through their leaves, accentuating their translucency. Their glass-like leaves allow light to penetrate deeper into the leaf tissue, reaching chloroplasts and maximizing photosynthesis. This is particularly advantageous in low-light environments where plants need to efficiently use any available light. In bright sunlight, translucent leaves may scatter or reflect excess light, reducing the amount of solar energy absorbed by the leaf. This helps prevent overheating and potential damage to the photosynthetic machinery. So these are some of the more expensive types of Haworthia that you can find. And what you'll notice is that you'll see there's a lot more color here. It's not just green or it's not just white. You'll begin to see like some pinks, especially like pinks with dark or pinks on glass. And look at this, like the red here is really, really pretty. This thing just looks like a little crystal here. It's like pink and the succulent leaves themselves are almost clear. I mean, these things are just like little pieces of art. And again, like the cactus, they grow quicker than the cactus, but still they're not a very fast growing plant. And you can have a lot of them without taking up too much space. Here we have some more showpiece ones. Like if you look at some of the striping and colors in this one, like look at this beautiful striping on the side and this color from the top. It's like, is that a beautiful like peach color that you wouldn't often find in these types of plants. This is a newer type that you don't really see very often as well with this kind of fuzziness. In fact, I've seen very few of those myself. These are very exquisite. Yeah, and these are very expensive. And some of these would be in like, like if you go to the shows here, the cactus and succulent shows, these are the types that you see in the actual show being judged. They're not a super hard plant to care for still, but they're going to be a little bit harder than the cactus. They tend to grow well. They're like succulents, so they tend to be pretty hardy and strong and they can withstand, you know, if you forget to water them sometimes, but you don't want to completely neglect these for a month like you can do with the cactus. So I think one thing might be worth mentioning is that a lot of these are being grown right now in actually China and Taiwan. And it's now just starting some of the growers here in Thailand. You know, a year ago you'd saw one, then there was two, now you're going to see three, four or five growers here in Thailand. So I think you're going to see a lot more of these being produced in Thailand now instead of just Japan, actually instead of just China and Taiwan. And like anything that they seem to do here with the plants, I think some of the varieties we're going to be seeing coming out of Thailand soon are going to be just stunning. So for all these varieties, are they considered like new, like within the last few years, last few months or? You know, I don't actually know. What I know is that they're becoming more popular now. And I imagine some of these were around before that, but they're just becoming a little bit more known. So they're kind of beginning to pop up on the radar. So now we're spending a lot more time delving into them, learning about the different named cultivars, which ones are more popular. But I definitely think you are seeing new ones pop up every single day because I myself am noticing new names pop up here that weren't here six months ago. How are these propagated? Do you know? So these are also propagated by flower. You pollinate them same way you do most other cactus. Take the pollen from one, put it into the flower of another. But these also can regrow just from a single leaf. Yeah, I was going to ask, can they grow from a leaf? Yeah, exactly. So it's just like a regular, like what is the jade? Pastula. Yeah, exactly. The succulent, pretty standard, can regrow from just a single leaf. These will also root and regrow a whole new plant from a single leaf as well. That must be fun to actually propagate it. All right, thank you, Brett, for taking us around. We learned so much from you today. I've been happy to. I hope you guys saw some interesting stuff and maybe check us out if you're looking for some interesting stuff. I hope you guys learned something too. I mean, there's so many interesting species to discover with these cactus and succulents. And if you've traditionally been into aeroids or you've been to cactus succulents for a long time, you might be surprised at some of the really new, interesting stuff coming out of here. Hmm, cool. All right. I'll see you guys in the next one. All right. Bye-bye. See you guys.