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Echinocereus subinermis
This species is easy to recognize, it has a dark bluish-green
body
with small spines and the flowers are large yellow with green stigmas.
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Description: At first simple or slowly clumping. This species is the
least armed of the genus.
Stem: When young pale green, afterwards bluish green and finally
darker green and more or les purplish, 10-20 cm tall, 7 to 9 cm in
diameter.
Ribs: 5-11 with narrow furrows between them, broad somewhat
sinuate, rounded.
Areoles: Small, slightly woolly, 10-12 mm apart.
Central spines: Usually absent or (sometime 1 to 4) up to 2 cm
long, porrect.
Spines: Younger plants have short spines while older ones
are almost spineless.
Radial spines: 0 to 10 (usually 3 to 8), widely spreading, small,
unequal, conic, yellowish, or creamishi with a darker tip, deciduous, 1
to 8 mm long (or more).
Flowers: Large and showy up to 10-12 cm in diameter near the stem
tips and from second to third areoles on the ribs, perianth segments
oblanceolate, acute, cream to bright-yellow delicately sweet-scented,
often with some reddish midstripes. Stigma with 10-12 green lobes.
Filaments light yellow. Spines of areoles on ovary and flower-tube
short, white to brown with scarce white wool..
Blooming season: Spring and summer. The individual flowers will
last up to six days.
Blooming generally begins 4
to 5 years after sowing, as the plant matures.
Fruit: Obovoid, spiny, grey-green with white pulp, deciduous by a
longitudinal slit.
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Family:
Cactaceae (Cactus
Family)
Scientific name:
Echinocereus subinermis Salm-Dyck ex
Scheer
in Seeman, Bot. HM HS Herald, p. 291, 1856
Origin: Northern Mexico (southern Sonora, western Chihuahua,
northern Sinaloa)
Habitat: It grows in tropical deciduous
oak forests.
Conservation status: Listed in
CITES appendix 2.
Synonyms:
- Echinocereus luteus Br. et R.,
Contrib. US Nat. Herb., 16 : 239, 1913
- Echinocereus subinermis var. luteus
(Br. et R.) Backeb.,
Die Cactaceae, 4 : 1973, 1960
- Echinocereus subinermis var. aculeatus
(Br. et R.) G.Unger,
Kakt. und and. Sukk., 35 : 162-165, 1984
Two subspecies are recognized:
- Subsp. subinermis with usually
solitary stems (or with very few branches) often spineless with 5-9
ribs. the floral tube is only slightly woolly (from northern Sinaloa,
southern Sonora, south-western Chihuahua)
- Subsp. ochteraneae With branched
stems, always spiny with 8 to 11 ribs. the flower tube is noticeably
woolly (From northern Sinaloa).
- The previous Echinocereus luteus,
from Sonora and Sinaloa, now included in E. subinermis,
is generally solitary, has 8 or 9 ribs, no central spine, 6 to 8
radials, up to 8 mm long.
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Buds are spiny with a very few wool.
Cultivation:
This cactus is
cultivated and highly
priced for its flowers.
It is among the easiest species to
grow, flower and propagate.
Water regularly from March to October. Rot prone in
winter, it needs good drainage. It can not tolerate much frost and does not like
full harsh sun either. as it seems to have a delicate skin and few
spines so gave it a protected position in the partial-shade or under
filtered sun. Frost Tolerance: Hardy to -2°
C.
Propagation: Seeds
(usually), it also can be grown from cuttings, as it can branch from the
base.
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