Xerophyte

Seeds

Roundish, 0.7-0.9 mm, dark-reddish-brown to black, matt, with whitish hilum.

Description

Gymnocalycium mostiiSN|11465]]SN|11465]] is a solitary cactus species with a flattened dark green stem usually less than 13 across. The ribs are broad and obtuse with a small sharp chin below each tubercle. The horn-coloured spines take a nice red colouring when wetted. Its pale rose-pink blooms are profusely produced during the growing season.

Derivation of Name

The specific epithet honours the plant collector Carlos Most, who collected in Argentina.

Flowers

Campanulate, rose pink, 6 to 8 cm broad. Tube short and thick, shining bluish green, with 8 to 10, semicircular, pale edged scales. Perianth-segments spreading pale rose pink with darker base, oblong.

Spines

Strong, subulate, yellowish-brown or horn-coloured, darker brown and glossy at base and tips, becoming grey with age, stout, curving toward the stems; radial spines 7 to 9(-11), unequal, 6 to 22 mm. long; central spine solitary (occasionally 2), 18 to 20 mm Long.

Ribs

11 to 14, vertical or slightly spiralled with age, broad and obtuse, deeply notched, with prominent, well defined tubercles.

Stem

Depressed-globose, 6 to 7 cm high, 13 cm in diameter, dark to bluish green.

Fruits

Ovoid to almost spherical, slate blue-green, to 2 cm long and 1.5 cm in diameter.

Areoles

Roundish or elliptical, 6-8 mm long, with creamy-white wool when young, almost bare as they ages.