Xerophyte

Central Spines

1 to 20 stouter, pungent, usually (1-)2-3,5(-7) cm long, dark-tipped, developed only on plants of flowering-size, usually white to grey with dark or blackish tips.

Description

Matucana hayneiSN|1080]]SN|1080]] is a globe-shaped cactus densely covered by white-greyish, hair-like spines. The purple, tubular flowers project beyond the spines and present a most attractive appearance at flowering time. It is polymorphic in the wild and divided into several subspecies and forms varying in spine size, colour and density, as well as in growth habit and flowers colour.

Flowers

Apical, (4-)6-7(-9) cm long , to 4 cm in diameter, bilaterally symmetrical to nearly regular, limb scarcely oblique, with a long slender tube; scales on ovary and tube few, small, ovate, naked in their axil. The segments acute, scarlet to salmon to purplish crimson. Anthers yellow. Stigma-lobes green.

Spines

Variable, white to pale brown, grey with age.

Ribs

(14-)25-30, tuberculate.

Stem

Generally single but occasionally many-stemmed, globular to broad cylindrical, 8-10(-20) cm in diameter, up to 30 cm high, green, densely covered and almost invisible under the numerous spines.

Radial Spines

Numerous ( 14 to 45) 8-40 mm long weak, bristly, glassy white to yellowish brown.

Fruits

Small, spherical to club shaped reddish-green.

Areoles

Set closely together, with an abundance of wool when young, but without any when old.