-
x
Description
This is an almost spineless plant. If you like deep purple-bodied plants, you simply must get it (if you haven't already).# # # PIANTA SPECIALE Family: Cactaceae (Cactus Family) Habitat: They strive in granitic hills, few km. from the sea. Some plants grow (and sunk) in flat lands or on soft slopes, only in sand (eventually with little rocks and quartz) while others lives in rocky slopes, between cracks. They grows along with Copiapoa longistaminea. Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.
| |
Description: Eriosyce esmeraldana is a tiny geophytic , spineless (or spiny) plant usually solitary or sometime branching. Stems: Flattened, mostly underground, the unusual colouring ranges fromdark green to purplish-brown, 3-4 cm in diameter (but up to 6 cm in cultivation). Ribs: 13-22, dissolved into ± rounded tubercles. Root: Long turbiniform conical taproot, Spines: Almost spineless or with 5-7 short, thin, needle like spines, 3-5 mm long. The spineless form is more popular with collectors Flowers: Apical, yellow (greenish) or reddish, 2-3 cm long and wide. Black bristles and dense wool cover the floral tube and pericarpel. Fruit: Ovoidal, dry with a thin wall and dehiscing by a basal pore. Individual plants of this species shows a certain degree of variability depending on origin, The plant found from north of Pan de Azucar, arriving to Esmeralda, are mostly with white spines. The plants at north of Esmeralda have usually black spines. While in Esmeralda most of the plants are spineless. | |
Cultivation: It is a summer-growing species. Water regularly in summer, but do not over-water (rot prone). It needs good drainage and very a porous potting soil Keep dry in winter. Feed with a high potassium fertilizer in summer. Full sun to light shade |