Piccola pianta con rami caduchi che si originano da un grosso caudice sotterraneo. Family: Cactaceae (Cactus Family) Scientific name: Pterocactus reticulatus Kiesling 1971 Origin: Mendoza, San Juan - Argentina (South America) Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.
| |
| Description: Small clumping plant with large undergroung tuberose root. Stem: Formed by brown, olive green, greyish-purple or whitish-grey segments. The side segment are (ususually) unbranched, rather thick up to 2 cm in diameter, 2-3 cm long, globose to pear shaped with a net-like (= reticulate) pattern of romboid tubercles. Root: Tuberose up to 20 cm long. Glochids: Very small. Central spines: One (but usually absent) erect up to 5 mm long. Radial spines: Very few (up to 6) or absent, pectinate, whitish to brownish, 2 to 5 mm long. Flower: Up to 5 cm in diameter. Pearl-white with a pale pink tinge with a dark-red stigma. The flowers are at the tip of side segments and hardly at the tip of the main segments like at P. megliolli. Fruit: Borne laterally, often the bigger than the sterile segments. Globose up to 2,5 cm in diameter. | |
 |  |
| The pearl-white with a pale pink tinge flowers forms apically at the tip of lateral stems. | |
 |  |
| NOTES: Like for trees that lose their leave in autumn the pterocati lose annually their aerial part (segments) in a controlled way using a layer of bark to seal the subterranean, living root-stock or keep their branches alive until harsh conditions kill them, and then the grower throws the plants out, not realizing that the root is still healthy. The best thing to do when pterocati begin to dye back is to stop watering them and let them stay dry and dormant. A few month later they will sent up a shoot on their own. When that shoot appears, resume watering. Cultivation: Pterocacti are easy to grow, providing they are kept cold, but dry during autumn and winter. It is essential to give full sun otherwise they will become atypical. If grown in full sun, the new growth will flower profusely in spring and summer. | |
