HISTORY OF ALBINO CACTI
Probably the only albinos to survive outside the laboratories are some of the plants in the cactus family. Eiji Watanabe and K. Kitoh from Japan were the first to breed such cacti in 1940. This plants were hybrids of several gymnos and Gymnocalicium michanovitchii v. friedrichii. They found two albino plants among 10,000 seedlings and made repeated cuttings and grafts. Watanabe first obtained a yellowish red cactus, named 'Unjo-nishiki'. In 1948 red 'Hibotan' appeared. Japan soon produced millions of such cultivars, which spread all over the world. They were known by easy-to-remember nicknames, such as
'Ruby Cactus', 'Red Cap', 'Nishiki', 'Hibotan', 'Optima Rubra' etc. After 1960, they were cheap enough that everybody could buy them. Interestingly, West European collectors, scientists and researchers didn't accept this type of plant. Maybe they were jealous that such a discovery was made in the land without a cacti research tradition, or maybe it was the unusual stock, (Hylocereus undunatus and its relatives), that they did not like. No one can be sure. Plants soon appeared with yellow, pink and purple variations. In 1983, Ishikawa recognised 16 variations of 'Hibotan' and 10 in 'Nishiki'.
After 1955, they wee produced with tissue-culture engineering. Japan dominated their production, and later some other countries in South-eastern Asia joined in.
New albino plants began to appear much later also in Europe, (Hungary, Austria, East Germany, and former Czechoslovakia).
In Slovenia the first specimen appeared in 1978 (Proteus, February 1984).
