Xerophyte

Habit

Frailea chiquitanaSN|3603]]SN|3603]] is a s small depressed perennial stem succulent, usually solitary, rarely offsetting or many-stemmed forming low, flat clusters that grow deeply seated flat to the ground surface. Only in cultivation plants may have a spherical till columnar shape.

Central Spines

Absent, occasionally 1 to 3 dark brown, up to 3 mm long.

Seeds

2 mm in diameter, shiny dark brown to blackish. smooth. hilum elongate-ovate-oblong. The seed is shaped strangely for a cactus , and is often described as “hat” or “boat” shaped with a prominent edge. That is a good description, for it is among the few cactus seeds that float! They are thought to be dispersed in habitat by floating away on runoff.

Description

The typical Frailea chiquitanaSN|3603]]SN|3603]] is a dwarf cactus with unique and remarkably beautiful shape that is grown for its tiny purple stems. The beautiful crested form (Frailea chiquitanaSN|3603]]SN|3603]] f. cristata) is very rare in collection and highly priced for its sculptural shape.

Roots

Conical, tuberous, with fine lateral diffuse roots.

Crested Stems

Fan shaped, more or less convolute 2,5-3,5(-4) cm thick yellowish or bluish green or tinged with purplish and with a dark purple-brown lunate, blots situated below the areoles.

Flowers

Apical, diurnal, radial, funnelform to bell shaped, light to sulphur yellow from the top of the plant, 1,7-2(-3,2) mm long 2,2-2,5(-4) cm wide. Buds with light brown wool. Tepals attenuate-acute. Stigma-lobes 5-7, to 5,5 mm very slender.

Spines

Not or slightly interlaced. to 3 mm, whitish or more often dark brown to blackish.

Ribs

Very small size (16 mm from rib tip to rib tip) straight, low and broken up into conspicuous, blunt tubercles 2-3 mm in diameter, often with pronounced reddish markings beneath.

Radial Spines

(4-)5-8(-12) pectinate, bristle-like, whitish, adpressed up to 3 mm long.

Fruits

Dry indehiscent with scales and bristles that detach easily up to 10 mm in diameter, pericarp membranous, fragile that break easily releasing the seed.

Areoles

Large elliptical, prominent, white to dark brown often with persistent white wool.