Many globular cactus do not produce side shoots, so the only way to reproduce them is the seed. To derive the seeds, our plant must have reached maturity, in order to flourish and be therefore potentially capable of producing fruits with fertile seeds inside. Unfortunately, some cacti bloom after many years, or are in need of environmental conditions difficult to reproduce in cultivation and therefore the only solution is to buy seeds from specialist nurseries. Another problem to be addressed in order to obtain seed from their succulent plants, it depends on the fact that many species are self-sterile, i.e. they are not able to fertilize. For this it is necessary to have another plant of the same species to manually pollinate. Sometimes you may risk getting unwanted hybrids if other species similar to the one that we want to reproduce bloom at the same time and the insects or the wind come before our intervention.
In other cases, though less frequent, the species can be dioecious, which means that the male and female flowers are on separate individuals. Without a male plant and a female one will be impossible to get the fruit.
In the pictures below you can see some cacti that produce seeds easily. In the first picture you can see the ripe fruit of a Melocactus matanzanus; when dry it will provide small black seeds to be planted. In the next pictures you can see the dried fruits of some Astrophytum that when matured break leaving to get out the black seeds with the characteristic shape of a cap.
The fruits that ripened open letting out the seeds are defined dehiscent.








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Classification

Agavaceae

Aizoaceae

Apocynaceae

Asclepiadaceae

Asteraceae

Cactaceae

Crassulaceae

Euphorbiaceae

Liliaceae

Moraceae

Portulacaceae