This plant,
according to Fr. Ritter's description and pictures in his 4 volume book
'Kakteen in Südamerika', certainly is Haageocereus lanugispinus.
For a long time this taxon erroneously had been called
Pygmaeocereus densiaculeatus due to Backeberg's generic
misplacement in 1966.
Ritter found that taxon already in 1957 in a tiny area north of
Pativilca in the flat coastal zone near or at the boarder line of Depto.
Lima and Ancash. In his book he finally described it by the name which
had been used before as
nomen nudum in the nursery of his sister H. Winter.
Description: It is a very
rare and poorly known small finger sized sprawling cactus spreading from
its base, half-lying on the ground. It seems that there is only ONE
clone propagated in collections worldwide!
Spines: Most unusual dense, plumose, short, glassy white, which
detach very easily.
Flower: White .
This plant seems to be very
rarely seen in its "normal" form, as it is almost always seen the
cristate form.
However the crested form sometimes throws off normal stems, but they
proved to be particularly difficult to root, for this reason the few
plants found in specialized cactus collections are - usually - grafted.
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