Xerophyte

Central Spines

4 to 11 up to 30 mm long, reddish, longer and stouter than the radials, of which one (or two) rigid and strongly hooked, whitish with dark tip.

Description

Cochemiea pondiiSN|9640]]SN|9642]] (syn

Roots

Fibrous or moderately thickened.

Note

Cochemiea pondiiSN|9642]]SN|9642]] is often confused with Cochemiea maritimaSN|9642]]SN|9640]] which has only four stouter central spine per areole (of which one hooked).

Tubercles

Conical, axils with fine bristles.

Flowers

Produced near the plants tip from axils of tubercles , long, scarlet, 5 cm long, 2 cm wide, zygomorphic with a long hypanthium, segment flaring and tips reflexed, style as twice as corolla, stamens exerted half as far as style, filaments and anthers red.

Blooming Season

March – April (sometime blooms a second time in Autumn)

Stem

7-30(-40) cm long, 3-7 cm in diameter, grass green, cylindrical, narrow, either upright or prostrate, eventually clumping near the base of the plant, somewhat jointed hidden under a dense cover of spines.

Radial Spines

15-30 white (usually) creamy or sometime reddish brown, slender, spreading, up to 12 mm long.

Fruits

Purplish-red 18 mm long ovoid to obovoid.

Areoles

At first bearing grey wool then naked.