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Description: Tiny solitary
cactus.
Stem: Flattened globose, pale grey-green, olive green or purplish-tan
in full sun, 2 cm tall, 3.5-5 cm in diameter. The variegated forms show
decoloured areas (lacking or with reduced chlorophyll content) that
appears cream-yellow to pinkish.
Root: tap root
Tubercles: Broad, flattened, 4-angled.
Areoles: White and woolly.
Spines: 1 to 3 spongy spines, one up to
2 cm
Flowers: White in summer (July to September in habitat), 2.5 cm
long, 4 cm across, white or pinkish stigmas.
Variegation, albinism &
schizochromism.
Variegation: A variegated plant has sectors, patches or stripes
with two or more different colours, even distinct shades of green.
Plants with variegated stems or leaves are often
attractive and
highly prized.
In most species the
stems or leaves are normally green, and variegated epidermis is an
uncommon
mutation, termed a
chimera. A chimeral variegation is due to losing the ability to
produce
chlorophyll in some of the plant’s
tissue, so that this tissue is no longer green. Tissues lacking
chlorophyll are usually white or pale yellow coloured (due to
carotenoid
pigments) or red (due to
betalain or
anthocyanin pigments) contrasting with the normal green tissue.
There are several forms of variegation, depending on the tissues that
have been affected. The variegation in some forms is unstable. The
extent and nature of the variegation can vary, and sometimes the plant
will return to the green form. In others it is stable and does not
change under normal conditions. Because the variegation is due to the
presence of two kinds of plant tissue, propagating the plant must be by
a
vegetative method of
propagation that preserves both types of tissue in relation to each
other.
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Cultivation and
Mail Sale 
