Xerophyte

Leaves

The foliage is persistent, formed by a dense mass of dark green, cylindrical and almost needle-like leaves, (1-)4 to 6(-10) mm long, , 1-2 mm in diameter, green, straight to slightly curved with acute tips. It keeps its leaves in the winter.

Description

Maihuenia poeppigiiSN|11620]]SN|11620]] is a shrubby, much branched, prostrate, succulent plant originally described as an Opuntia, but there are no glochids, and differences in seed and other microscopic features. It is hardy cactus that forms large mats of cylindrical stems with small, succulent leaves and white spines, often consisting of hundreds of individual segments. It is small in size, and can reach 10-15(-20) cm in height, but it can grow up to 2 meter in diameter. This is a common adaptation to cold, windy alpine habitats. The flowers are very showy, large, satiny and lemon-yellow in colour.

Roots

Taproots fleshy, 40-80 cm long.

Note

Its specific epithet poepigii commemorates Eduard Pöppig, a 19th-century German naturalist who explored South America.

Flowers

terminal, remarkably beautiful, large, soft, satiny, lemon-yellow.

Blooming Season

It flowers in late spring. .

Spines

3 from each areole, the 2 laterals very short (occasionally only one or absent), the central one round to flattened above, rigid, 15 to 25 mm long.

Stem

Spiny to the bases, oval, club-shaped or cylindrical, branching from neartips, 2-6 cm long or more, 8-20 mm in diameter without knoblike spur shoots..

Fruits

Oblong, obovate to club shaped 5-6 cm long. The fruits of this species are edible.

Areoles

Small whitish.