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Description: Body upright,
columnar-cylindrical, almost like a Cereus, forming a somewhat open
clump.
Stem: Up to 50 cm tall, 7-10 cm in diameter, basally narrowed,
grass-green to greys-green, crown blunt whit creamy-brown wool, which is
in no way obscured by flowers
Ribs: 10-14, very sharp, broad obtuse,
separated by broad intervals, neither tubercled nor notched up to
1 cm tall, straight or running up in a screw-like spiral, with sharply
indented furrows between.
Areoles: Rounded 0,5-1 cm in diameter, closely approaching each
other or touching one another, young areoles with abundant grey or
brownish wool, becoming ash-grey or black and bare in age.
Spines: Dark-brown becoming chalky-white as they ages. Spines
clusters very closely set.
Radial spines: 5-7 strong, straight, spreading out in a ray, 1 -
2 cm. long, the sideways or downwards pointing ones commonly the
longest,
Central spines: 1 standing up vertically, very rigid, porrect, 2
to 3(-4) cm long (longer than the radials)
Root:
Conical-napifom root-stock, rapidly tapering with thick neck.
Flowers: 3 to 4 developing at a time, ,with characteristic
Copiapoa flower-scent, sprouting out from the wool of the crown, yellow,
scarcely standing out from the spines, when completely open only 2,5 to
3 cm in diameter, with lanceolate-spathulate perianth segments approx 15
mm long, 7 mm large, narrower below, rounded off above, pale yellow, the
outermost reddish at the tips and expanded. Floral tube funnel-form
1-1.5 cm long, exterior with a few larger, greenish scales becoming
red-brown above. Nectar chamber 3-5 mm. long, 3-4 mm wide half open.
Filaments pale yellow, the lower ones 1.2 cm. long, the upper 0.7 to 0.9
cm. long, anthers citron yellow. Style1.75 - 2 cm long, 2 mm. thick,
(longer than the stamens) with 9-15 rayed pale yellow stigma lobes,
without any narrowing above the ovary.
Fruit: Small, 1 up to 1.2 cm. long, 0.8 up to 1.2 cm. broad,
barrel shaped, (ovary 3 to 7 mm in diameter) pale green, or with a faint
red tint, at the upper end greener or more reddish-brown, usually quite
hairless and scaleless, or with few (1 or 3) red scales. Dehising from a
lid-like top cracking when ripe.
Blooming season: Spring and summer
Seeds: 1 mm long, 0,7 mm wide, 03 mm thick, black, somewhat
shiny, with very small verrucae, hilum at the basal end inclined half
ventral-wards, oval, white. |
Cultivation and
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