Xerophyte

Seeds

1.5 mm. dull black.Similar species. E. acida differs from Eulychnia ritteri in the, woolly hairs in the axils of the bracts of its flowers and in the fruits being very short instead of long.

Description

Eulychnia acida, locally known as 'copao', is columnar cactus that varies in habit, usually treelike 1.5-4(-7) meters high, with a definite trunk 1 meter long and then more or less branching, forming a more or less rounded top, but sometimes shrubby, much branched, without trunk, forming a low mass 1 meter high or less, with branches often procumbent or ascending. Often plants have not any symmetrical or regular development, so many of them are raggedy and sometimes downright ugly for their constant struggle for moisture. Eulychnia acidaSN|7067]]SN|7067]] are fiercely spiny even as seedlings. The fruit is edible, almost naked without wool and or porrect spines.

Note

The specific epithet 'acida' comes from the Latin, meaning 'sour' and refers to the flavour of the fruit.

Flowers

Borne near the stem tips, broadly bell-shaped, white with reddish midveins, 5-7 cm long, turbinate, up to 4-6 cm in circumference at top. Ovary and tube covered with numerous small, ovate, imbricating scales, fleshy at base but with acute, callous, black tips and very short sparse brown to grey-black hairs. Limb somewhat oblique. Inner perianth-segments at first pale rose-colored, then white with pink midstripe, 20 to 22 mm long. Throat very short, covered with stamens. Stamens borne in the broad throat white, 1 to 1.5 cm. long, included. Style short and thick, 2 cm long, stiff, white, with 12 to 15 stigma-lobes.

Spines

Variable, nearly porrect, needle-like, greyish in age but brownish when young. Central spines 1-2, erect, sometimes 20 cm long. Radial spines about 12, more or less directed outward 1 cm or more long.

Ribs

10-16, broad and low.

Stem

Usually erect but sometimes nearly prostrate, 6-12 cm in diameter . The lack of rainfall results in a pallid grey-green colour, sometimes quite ugly. Most of the plants become covered with dirt and dust that is never removed by cleansing rain. Parts of the plants are usually dead or dying, and the living parts may be dormant, so that it is difficult to ascertain which is which.

Fruits

Globose, 5-6 cm long, and 5 cm in diameter, scaly, hairy, devoid of spines, fleshy, somewhat acid, grey-green becoming brownish yellowish green and crowned by the persistent perianth remnants.

Areoles

7-15 mm apart.