Xerophyte

Central Spines

3, 15 to 21 mm long.

Seeds

Small l mm long, 0,7 mm wide, red-brown, shiny, with with many warts, microphyle region slightly oblique.

Description

Gymnocalycium chacoenseSN|17825]]SN|33078]] is a low growing species that form large groups of many pale-green stems, often of 25-50 heads. The plants offset very strongly. Probably due to the almost exclusively vegetative propagation, the population at the type site is very uniform. With time each individual offsets produce its own roots and becomes an independent plant. This species is strictly related to Gymnocalycium paediophilumSN|33078]]SN|17825]] and often synonymized with the latter (Hunt et alt. 2006), but G. Charles et Detlev Meting consider it a good species, distinguished from G. paediophilum by smaller flowers, that are white to pink sometimes becoming red at maturity and also by finer, golden-yellow, denser and bristly spines that give it a distinct identity. It's really a very interesting gymno, different from the rest of the genus.

Roots

Shallow, fibrous.

Flowers

Several at a time, slender funnel-shaped, appearing on the apex of the stem closely embedded among the spines and barely open, 3.5-4.5 cm long (rarely 2.5 cm) and 2 to 3.2 cm in diameter, white to delicate light pink with a yellow-brown throat. Ovary flat-spherical c. 3 mm tall and 4 mm wide, rose-magenta, with several smooth, spineless scales. Scales half-rounded, pink with a pale-coloured margin. Outer perianth segments spatulate, 15-18 mm long, pale rose-magenta with a large whitish margin, the apex curved outward. Inner perianth segments lanceolate, 18 mm long, up to 6 mm wide at the widest point, milky-white. Filarnents thin, pale greenish-yellow, inserted throughout the tube wall, 9 mm long, pressed against the wall, the upper third curved inward, overlooking style. Anthers oval, 1 mm long, 0,5 mm in diameter, pollen yellow. Style 7 mm long, stigma 9 mm long, light yellow-green, overlooked by the last row of anthers.

Spines

Thin, and stiff, rigid but elastic, more or less protruding, straight to slightly curved, initially light yellow with dark tips, greying later.

Ribs

8-12 rounded, hardly humped.

Stem

Bright fresh green, spherical 40-75 mm tall, 55-80 mm in diameter, branching profusely from the base.

Radial Spines

6-9, 8 to 19 mm long.

Fruits

Small, elongated, green at first juicy, drying at maturity, 6-8 mm long, green 4-5 mm wide. Seeds stuck in a gelatinous mass.

Areoles

Round 3 mm in diameter, 14-15 mm apart, with white or yellowish felt when young fading with time.