Xerophyte

Central Spines

(3-)4, forming a cross, straight, stiff, yellowish or straw-coloured, dark brown at base 2-3 cm long.

Seeds

Helmet-shaped to 1.4 mm, finely tuberculate, matt black.

Description

Parodia buiningiiSN|20510]]SN|20510]] (Buxbaum) N.P. Taylor is a solitary, flattened cactus only a few cm in height with long, straw-yellow spines. It bears large and showy yellow flowers, and produces hairy fruit and black seeds.

Flowers

7 cm long, 8 cm in diameter, shiny, pale yellow with a distinct red-violet stigma. Pericarpel and tube with thick dark to light brown wool.

Blooming Season

Summer.

History

The species was first described as Notocactus buiningiiSN|20511]]SN|20511]] by F. Buxbaum in 1968, and was given its current name by N. P. Taylor in 1968, based on Buxbaum's earlier description. Despite remonstrance from hobbyists (among whom Notocactus species were popular) Notocactus (and others) have now been synonymised under Parodia.

Ribs

About 16, pronounced, straight and sharp, up to 2 centimetres in height, with narrow blade-like tubercles between the areoles.

Stem

Simple, depressed-spherical to spherical, or oblate, , not woolly apically, grass green, pale grey, bluish to bright emerald green, up to 8 cm tall and 12 cm in diameter.

Radial Spines

2-3, very similar to the centrals but smaller.

Fruits

Elongating at base, up to 3 cm long.

Areoles

Sunken under the tubercles, initially woolly, losing the wool as they mature.