Xerophyte

Seeds

Reniform, hard, sharply sculptured.

Description

Maihueniopsis nigrispinaSN|20943]]SN|32593]] is a shrubby, moderately or sometimes densely branched, cactus species forming, hemispheric clumps of loosely arranged segments 1-2 metres wide. Unlike Maihueniopsis darwiniiSN|32593]]SN|20943]], this species is self-fertile, producing fruits which are bright pink and sweet- tasting when ripe. In this and other respects it appears quite distinct from anything else previously included in the very broad genus Tephrocactus sensu Backeberg.

Stem Segments

More or less upright, of determinate growth, oblong to ellipsoidal, to 4 cm, or shorter and subglobose, round in cross section, dull green or reddish violet, tuberculate when young, spiny above.

Note

The epithet 'nigrispinus,-a,-um'; from Latin 'niger, nigra, nigrum', black, and Latin '-spinus', -spined, refers to the purplish-black spines.

Flowers

Dark red to purple (or brilliant scarlet), 2-2.5 cm long. Pericarpel with little wool and 1–2 bristles in the axils of the few bract-scales, apparently sometimes with areoles at rim.

Spines

3-5, borne on upper areoles, acicular, straight, spreading, weak, purplish black or not, 2.5-5 cm long.

Fruits

Indehiscent, with 4–5 small areoles on, or near the rim, the few lower nodes bearing minute tufts of wool, epidermis and flesh dark red, soft, juicy and sweet.

Areoles

2-3 mm in diameter, with abundant wool and glochids.