Family:
Cactaceae (Cactus
Family) Eriosyce clavata (
Söhrens ex K.Schum. ) Helmut
Scientific name: Eriosyce
subgibbosa var. clavata (Söhrens ex K.Schum.) F.Kattermann
Conservation status: Listed in
CITES appendix 2.
Origin: Coastal Chile
(Approx from Valparaiso to Maule)
Habitat: Grows
on rocky outcrop on costal terraces
cliffs, slopes, often hanging from rocks,
from areas with very arid Mediterranean climate to areas of transition
between Mediterranean climate and humid forest.
Synonyms:
- Echinocactus
subgibbosus Haw.
[Philos. Mag. 10:419.
1831]
- Eriosyce
subgibbosa (Haw.) Katt.)
- Neoporteria
subgibbosa (Haw.) Britton & Rose)
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Description: The Eriosyce
clavata is one of the innumerable and controversial form
and variety of Eriosyce subgibbosa which is a very
variable species that and has received numerous names. It is one of the
few species that forms cylindrical stems.
Stem: Solitary, but sometimes branched, globular to columnar, up to
90 cm tall (or more), up to 10 cm wide. Grey-green, brownish-green or
blackish-green. ("clavata" means "club shaped" and refers
to the usually cylindrical stem shape of this form)
Ribs: ± 20
Spines: Nearly hiding the ribs, acicular, more or less long and
dense, white, yellowish, golden yellow, brown, or nearly black, while
older one became greyish.
Radial spines: 8-30, radiating,
Central spines: 4 (or more) stronger, straight or recurved
and spreading, often darker at the tips..
Flower: Pretty relatively small
up to about 4
cm long, bi-coloured with magenta, rose to
the violet petal tips and pinkish-white, white or yellowish-white
throat, giving the sensation of being fluorescent and being very
difficult to photograph in good conditions because that particularity.
Blooming season: Blooms early in late winter to spring. It is
advisable to leave them dry from middle of November to obtain fantastic
flowering later in January/March.
Fruits: Ovoid to cylindrical, partly hollow at maturity, only
scarcely woolly, apical areoles not spinescent.
Here are few short
descriptions of some of the many (very controversial) variety of this
variable plant:
Eriosyce subgibbosa var. subgibbosa (Haworth) F.
Kattermann. This is the form with more elongated stems, with 8 to 30
thin, acicular, radial spines per areole, spines often yellowish
Eriosyce subgibbosa var.
castanea (F.Ritter) Katt. It
has thin short and acicular radial spines and globose stems that will
sometimes offset. The flowers can get up to 6 cm long (the larger among
the "subgibbosa" forms).
Eriosyce subgibbosa var.
litoralis (F.Ritter) Katt.
It is very spiny and has from 30 to 40 hairlike radial spines per areole
it grows in the rocks,
Eriosyce subgibbosa ssp.
clavata (Söhrens ex K.Schum.)
Katt. It has from 11 to 13 thick radial spines per areole and slender
stems.
Eriosyce subgibbosa ssp.
clavata var. nigrihorrida (Backeb.)
Katt. It has dark coloured radial spines and globose stems most of the
time.
Eriosyce subgibbosa ssp.
clavata var. vallenarensis (F.Ritter)
Katt. it has from 9 to 24 thin & straight radial spine per areole and
slender stems.
Eriosyce subgibbosa ssp.
clavata var. wagenknechtii (F.Ritter)
Katt. It has dark skin and smaller pink flowers than the other varieties
at about 3 cm cm wide.
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