Copiapoa solaris var. fulvispina KK599 El Cobre, Blanco Encalada, 02 Antofagasta, 400m
n.n.
Family
Cactaceae
Genus
Species
Copiapoa solaris var. fulvispina KK599 El Cobre, Blanco Encalada, 02 Antofagasta, 400m
Author
Kníže
Chinese genus
龙爪球属
Chinese name
-
Accepted
DescriptionEdit description
Central Spines
2-5, 2-6 cm long.
Description
Copiapoa solaris is a slow clumping succulent with a cushion like growth form. It is incredibly slow growing, but old plants in habitat - over centuries - will form large cushion up to 2,30 m of diameter and 90 cm tall with hundreds of heads.
Note
The variety "fulvispina" n.n. (commercialized by Karel Kníže with the field number KK599) is characterized by yellow-amber spines (possibly thinner, longer and more numerose than the standard C. solaris.)
Flowers
Up to 3 cm long and in diameter, funnelform, yellow, occasionally with a pink or reddish coloured throat. The flowers are often almost concealed among the dense wool and spines at plant apex. Flower tube woolly (Hence the name Pilocopiapoa = hairy Copiapoa). It needs a lot of sunlight to bloom, so it's pretty rare to have blossoms when in cultivation in greenhouses.
Spines
Yellow, amber or reddish-brown when young, later chalky-grey, robust, straight or slightly bent, long and interwoven.
Ribs
8-12 elevated, up to 3,5 cm tall, not tuberculate.
Stem
Individual stems 8-12 cm in diameter, cylindrical green to grey-green with a waxy coating presumably to prevent desiccation in it's extremely dry environment. Offsets appear as white blobs and take about six months to produce a spine or two.
Radial Spines
7-10, 2-3 cm long.
Fruits
Woolly, up to 15 mm in diameter.