Xerophyte

Central Spines

Mostly 4-10, equally fine or hardly thicker, slightly shorter, brown to black, 1-2 mm long.

Seeds

ca. 1.0 mm long, 0.8 mm. wide, 0.7 mm thick, bag-like, dorsally keeled black, dull or barely shining.

Description

Pygmaeocereus familiarisSN|3846]]SN|18587]] is one of the smallest cactus, that in nature forms cushions with many green stems usually less than to 2 centimeters in length and 1 to 2.2 centimeters in diameter. The stems have short, fleshy taproots and often grow almost completely buried in the dirt with only the stem tips at ground level. The funnel-shaped, white flowers are up to 8 cm long and strongly perfumed. They have slender and long white petal. Some authors have sunk P. familiaris into Pygmaeocereus bylesianusSN|3846]]SN|3846]], but they seem pretty different.

Roots

Long fleshy taproots root with scarcely constricted root neck.

Note

"familiaris" Latin, pertaining to the family; for the clustering growth.

Flowers

White, sweetly smelling, to 8 cm long and ca. 5.5 cm wide when fully open, slightly asymmetric, the upper part the a few millimetres longer than the underside. Sprouting at a lower level than Pygmaeocereus bylesianusSN|18587]]SN|3846]].Pericarpel, 9-10 mm long, 4.5 mm thick, smooth, reddish-brown, with small short white wool and tiny triangular greenish yellow scales, sometimes with a few short white hairs; portion against the nectar chamber thin. Nectar chamber, tubular, about 25 mm high, 1.5 mm wide, outside 3.5 mm thick, with few tiny green scales and small white woolly flakes. Floral tube long and slender about 23 mm long, extending at the exit to 3 mm, inside pale, outside as nectar chamber, above with few few red-brown scales gradually passing into the outer perianth-segments. Corolla wheel-shaped, inner segments white or pink, lanceolate, approx 23 mm long, 7 mm wide, median segments with yellow-green narrow middle strip, outer segments narrow, linear red brown and green.White, very thin, ca 2 mm long, Anthers approx. 1.5 mm long, linear, pollen cream. Styles, pale green or almost white, 42 mm long, 0.4 mm thick, with 6 pale cream-coloured, 3 mm long scarring stigma-lobes between the anthers inside the tube.

Ribs

9-14, usually 10-12, 2-3 mm high, wavy, deeply notched.

Stem

Green, to 2 cm high (more in cultivation), 1-2.2 cm in diameter.

Radial Spines

Fine to slightly stout, needle-shaped,15-25, white, 1.5-3 mm long.

Areoles

On the tip of tubercles, round, with not rich felt, 1-1.5 mm Dm, 1.5-3 mm free distance.