Xerophyte

Central Spines

3-8, lowermost curved or straight, 3,2-9 cm long

Seeds

1-1,3 mm long, 0,8-1 mm broad slightly tuberculatate.

Description

Melocactus ernestiiSN|2264]]SN|2264]] is one of the larger Melocactus and one of the longest spined species of the genus, it is also a very variable species in size colour and form of the spines. Mature plants are easily recognizable by their cephalium, that have a covering of wool and bristles, while the immature plant looks like a smallish barrel cactus, and there is nothing in its appearance that would suggest a Melocactus. Plants of this genus attract more attention in collections than those of any other cactus genera.

Cephalium

Cap-like, globose to shortly cylindrical, (hence the common name of "Turk's Cap") to 2-18 cm high and 4-8 cm in diameter, covered by tightly peaked areoles that bear wool and pinkish-red bristles, the tips sometimes covered with white wool.

Flowers

Small, light to dark pinkish magenta, 17-30 mm long, 7-18 mm in diameter, similar in form to Mammillaria flowers. They do not emerge fully from the cephalium.

Chromosome Number

2n = 44

Spines

with red and yellow bands or reddish or brownish, becoming grey or black with age on old mature specimens.

Ribs

9-13, more or less rounded but sometimes sharp-edged.

Stem

Spherical to depressed conical to ellipsoid to short cylindrical, distinctly mucilaginous, light yellowish green to dark green, (8-)9-25(-45) cm high, (7-)12-22(-25) cm in diameter. When the plant has reached a certain age it shows at the growing tip a cephalium (the structure, where the flower buds will form.

Fruits

Clavate berry, often somewhat flattened, especially near the tip, variable in size 1,5 to 4,5 cm long, 6-10 mm in diameter, deep pink to crimson-red. Ripened fruits are present apically on the cephalium.

Habit

It is a solitary perennial stem succulent with determinate growth in which the axis does not continue to elongate indefinitely being limited by the development of the flower bearing cephalium.

Blooming Season

The flowers arise annually in mid summer from the cephalium in a ring. The flowers are diurnal and opens for a few hours at about lunchtime. It starts flowering in 6-10 years.

Radial Spines

6-13, slender, straight or curved outward, 4-15 cm long. The lowermost the longer.

Areoles

Somewhat rounded to obtuse with, 1-2 cm apart,m a little white wool nearer the centre of a juvenile plants.