The monstrose cultivar of the popular Myrtillocactus geometrizans cactus is the Myrtillocactus geometrizans ‘Fukurokuryuzinboku’ or if that’s too much of a mouthful then the common name is the Booby cactus or Boob cactus. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where the common name came from as it most definitely looks like it has women’s breasts all over it. Even the areoles on the tip of each breast looks like a nipple. I wouldn’t suggest playing with them like regular nipples though as they’re very sharp and spikey.
While the natural form of Myrtillocactus geometrizans can grow up to sixteen feet or five meters tall, the monstrose booby cultivar is rarely seen above 6 feet or 2 meters. It’ll grow up as a single stem until it becomes a mature cactus and start to branch out in a shrub-like fashion.
Fukurokuryuzinboku is a Japanese cultivar that was named after two of the seven gods of fortune in Japanese mythology. Fukurokuju who is the god of wisdom and longevity. Fuku means happiness, roku is wealth and ju is longevity. The other god from the Seven Lucky Gods is Ryujin who is a deity of the sea and knows much about medicine. He’s also said to bring rain and thunder.
The boobs of the Boob Cactus are called tubercles which are just the rounded protruding outgrowths found on some cacti. The word is Latin for ‘lump’ and just means small tuber. Each breast shaped tubercle usually has between two and nine spines positioned where the nipple would be on a human female. The examples I have grown usually have three or four spines coming out of each areole.
Summary of Myrtillocactus geometrizans ‘Fukurokuryuzinboku’
- Family: Cactaceae
- Genus: Myrtillocactus
- Species: Myrtillocactus geometrizans ‘Fukurokuryuzinboku’
- Common names: Boob Cactus, Booby Cactus, Titty Cactus, Blue Tit Cactus, Breast Cactus, Monstrose Blue Candle Cactus.
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