Xerophyte

Seeds

1.1 mm long, tuberculate, black.

Description

Turbinicarpus lauiSN|11701]]SN|11701]] is a tiny solitary, flattened globose cactus. Some hobbyists refer to the genus as Gymnocactus.

Flowers

White or pink, 35 mm wide, ca. 18 to 25 mm long; perianth segments with a slightly darker pale pink or pale tan middle-stripe; outer segments with a brownish middle-stripe on the outer surface; style white to pale cerise with 3 to 6 whitish stigma lobes which overtop anthers; stamens numerous with pale cerise filaments and golden yellow anthers, the longest to about 12 mm long.

Spines

6 to 7, and occasionally with an additional upper (sub-central) spine, glassy white with blackish tip, slender acicular, relatively stiff and slightly recurved, spreading, radiating; lower three spines up to 5 mm long, upper lateral spines up to 7 mm long, upper spine (s) ca. 18-22 mm long and generally incurved, connivent over the top of the stem, or occasionally erect to somewhat tortuous;

Ribs

Divided into tubercles, arranged in 5 and 8 spirals with 3 or 4 tubercles per spiral, dull medium green, up to 5 mm high, rhomboidal and up to 10 mm wide at base, conoidal.

Stem

Sub-globose to depressed globose, up to 35 mm wide and up to 15 mm tall.

Fruits

Small, round, greenish to brown, ca 5 mm in diameter, dehiscent by a longitudinal slit

Areoles

About 1 mm long, copiously woolly with thick, long, white wool in youth, soon becoming bare