To best appreciate Echinopsis hybrid flowers, you must look at them closely. The following tutorial, I hope, will help to that end. Some of the hybrids cited as examples are illustrated in the labeled photographs below, but reference must be made to the photographs in the descriptions for most. To view these photographs on this and the next page, click on the blue, underlined name of the hybrid cited, then to return to the tutorial, either click on your browser's Back button, or right click on your mouse and select the Back option. Only the former two will be considered here since scales are not aesthetically important features of the flowers.
Petals are the most obvious parts of a flower.
They are typically brightly colored and relatively broad. Sepals lie below the petals and are narrower and more sharply pointed than petals. They do not contribute notably to a flower s appearance. The dividing line between petals and innermost sepals is not distinct, one grades into the other. Beautiful Dreamer , showing three whorls of petals and ten sepals.