Cactus Love [Daily Photo #524]

When I lived in Moscow I had many cacti and other succulents. Our apartment had broad windowsills and lots of light, perfect for a collection of sun-loving plants. Then I moved to Finland and discovered that most apartments here don't really have proper windowsills, it seems. o_O I'm still puzzled by that. Besides, even if we had a sill big enough to put one or two rows of pots, there wasn't enough light in our previous apartment. This apartment, though, has much more light, plus I have a few grow lights for the darker areas. And so, the inevitable happened and I got two cacti the other day because I missed having them around. : 3

I don't know their species, they were sold labelled as simply 'cactus' as usual. : ( I can only guess who I got…There are 1400-1500 species of cacti, but you don't even get to know what genus your supermarket cactus is. Zero respect for the diversity of their species! =D (And don't get me started on aloe and euphorbia sometimes sold as 'cactus' too. The audacity! Do all succulents look the same to whoever labels them?? It's like selling carrots as 'vegetable' or red pepper as 'spice', grumble grumble.)

I think that this is an Astrophytum.

Maybe Astrophytum myriostigma?

And this one looks like a Gymnocalycium.

We had an instant connection when it pricked me with its thorn.

So gorgeous.

So precious. ^-^