Expert: Greg Simpson - 11/6/2006

Question
My son has a small cactus of which he is extremely fond.  We bought it at the grocery store in Japan.  We have no idea what type it is, as the card was in Kanji (and we're American) , although it closely resembles Coleocephalocereus aureus.  Hard to tell, as it is young and small and has no flowers to speak of.  

My daughter (4), apparently decided this little succulent required some additional decoration and painted the soft spines of it with ball-point pen ink.  None of the ink (so far) is on the flesh of the plant, although the spines on top are well coated.  I gently used a towel to blot at the ink in the direction of the spine growth, but ceased this effort as it simply added fluff to the ink globs.  Not a pretty sight.  Now my son is distraught, my daughter is remorseful and our cactus is blue (literally).  I know that alcohol removes ink from non-porous surfaces but I hesitated to use it on a plant, not knowing what the effects might be.  So questions: a) will this hurt the little guy?  b) what, if anything, should we do about it?

I'm having a "who ever figured I'd have a question like this" kind of moment here and hope you can give us a clue.

Thanks, Mr. Simpson!

Cat >^..^<


Answer
Dear Catherine,

I don't think the ink will have any ill affect (other than appearances) on your plant. I also don't think the alcohol will either. If the spines are long enough, you may try wetting a paper towel with alcohol and turning the plant upside down and wipe the spines across the paper towel or even submerging the spines in a cup of alcohol.

Again, I don't think the ink will hurt the plant, so you may want to leave it as it is. Sorry I could not be of more help.

Sincerely,

Greg