Xerophyte

Habit

Plants usually solitary, shortly columnar.

Central Spines

(1-)3-4, sometimes absent, 10-30 mm long.

Seeds

Bell shaped, widest at hilum, shiny reddish brown, nearly smooth.

Description

Parodia schumannianaSN|1141]]SN|1141]] is one of the larger species of the genus, with a dark green, rounded body densely clothed with yellowish to brownish spines growing up to 1,8 metres high. Large yellow blooms develop in summer at the crown of the plant and are followed by round green fruit. Two subspecies are recognized, the nominate form and the smaller subsp. claviceps (F.Ritter) Hofacker & P.J.Braun.

Flowers

Apical, funnel-shaped lemon yellow to golden yellow, 4-4.5 cm long, 4.5-6.5 cm in diameter; pericarpels and floral tubes, about 2-2,5 cm long, densely clothed with wool and bristles. Stigma-lobes cream coloured.

Spines

Bristle-like, straight to slightly arched, golden yellow to brown or reddish, later grey Radial and centrals similar flexible and unequal.

Ribs

21-48 (fewer in immature specimens), well defined, straight, acute, not tubercled.

Stem

Depressed spherical as a young plant, with apex more or less inclined, becoming cylindrical with age, bright to dark green, mostly 0,5-1 m hight, occassionally up to 1,8 m high and 15-25(-30) cm in diameter (flowering when much smaller).

Radial Spines

Mostly 4, in two pairs, 7-50 mm long.

Fruits

Globose to ovoid, brownish, with dense wool and bristles, dry at maturity, 1-1.5 cm in diameter.

Areoles

Very woolly apically, later less so.