Xerophyte

Habit

It is a low-growing, perennial stem succulent densely covered by spines, usually solitary or forming just a few offsets around the base.

Central Spines

8-10 up to 4 cm long needle-like but stronger than the radials.

Seeds

Black finely tuberculate.

Description

Matucana weberbaueri var. flammeaSN|6089]]SN|6087]] is one of the geographical form of the morphologically variable Matucana weberbaueriSN|6087]]SN|6089]], differing for its reddish orange flowers instead of yellow.

Flowers

Reddish orange, slim-tubed, straight to slightly oblique or zigomorphyc 5,5-6 cm long and 3 cm in diameter. Ovary and pericarpel pale greenish-yellow conical with yellowish scales. Tube 3-4 cm long and 6-10 mm in diameter orange or orange salmon at the base, with reddish-yellow scales with fine reddish hairs in the axils. Perianth light-orange to orange-red. Tepals spatulate, purple, 3 cm long and 0,5 to 0,6 cm wide. Filaments white, about 1 cm long, anthers and pollen yellow. Style dark pink with a orange base, with 5-6 pale green stygma lobes, about 2 mm long.

Blooming Season

Spring.

Ribs

Not napiform.

Stem

More or less globular, pale green up to 20 cm broad, up to 16 cm.

Radial Spines

About 20, 1-1,5 cm long, needle-shaped yellowish or yellow with darker tips, straight.

Fruits

Globular, about 10 mm in diameter, green and red, with persistent floral remnant and covered with small scales. Splitting open at maturity by a vertical fissure.

Areoles

Round to broadly elliptic, 6 mm long by 4 mm wide On tubercles tip, creamy-white, rather close together (up to 1 cm apart),