Can anyone help? What kind of cactus is it? What's wrong with it? How can I get it looking better? It's potted in a very gritty mix in a terracotta pot. It's in very bright light and hot temps in a greenhouse. New growth has the brown scabby stuff, but it doesn't look to me like insects or fungus. Any suggestions??

I think he has character.

Are you spraying anything in your greenhouse? Chemicals, windex, 409, pesticides.... anything?

No spraying that I know of. (I'm volunteering at a community greenhouse.) None of the other plants show anything similar. This is an orphan ugly stepchild that's been voted off the island but still persists.
Hamwild, thanks for seeing the positive! Is there an ugly cactus contest anywhere? I think I have a winner!

MsDoe said:No spraying that I know of. (I'm volunteering at a community greenhouse.) None of the other plants show anything similar. This is an orphan ugly stepchild that's been voted off the island but still persists.
Hamwild, thanks for seeing the positive! Is there an ugly cactus contest anywhere? I think I have a winner!

Kind of like the ugly dog contest?

I just noticed, but I wonder if this is the beginning of a flower?

Can anyone give me a possible ID?
Hamwild, good catch, I think that might be a bud. I'll keep an eye on it!

I believe a bloom would help with an ID, but all I can guess atm is a Gymnocalycium of sorts.

Hamwild said:I believe a bloom would help with an ID, but all I can guess atm is a Gymnocalycium of sorts.

baldanium probably from the appearance of the spines and ribs.

I'm looking at google images and shedding a tear, but thanks.
Can you share with me the meaning of the Latin names?

It will eventually grow out of 'ugly cactus' status if nothing else happens to it. Its obviously healthy.

gymno - naked
calyc - refers to the calyx of the flowers
ium just turns it into a noun

I'm not sure about baldanium but if it was named after a person, it would be baldanii. Maybe its not Latin.

It is named after a person called J. Baldi and as I understand things, the suffix merely converts that name into an adjective, eg. Roma -> Romanum.

https://www.wordsense.eu/-anus...

Those are not sun burn?

I suppose it could be but in my experience, sun burn is thin flat yellowish spots that become white flaky spots or rotten spots. This is more like a chemical burn.

But either way, this cactus is fine and thriving in spite of whatever happened to it.

Daisy, I was also thinking new growth would be healthy, but that hasn't happened. I repotted it when it arrived about two years ago. It then was quite neglected while volunteers were locked out due to Covid. I've been back since March, and I'm disappointed to see the new central growth looking about as bad as the old scabby stuff.
The greenhouse is very bright, I was considering sunburn, but it does look like it could be some sort of chemical burn. I'll see if I can move it to a shadier spot, see if that helps. Otherwise, just wait it out and see how it goes.
I'm still open to suggestions.
Thanks, everyone for a good discussion!