Astrophytum caput-medusae
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| ( Velazco & Nevárez ) DRHunt |
Astrophytum caput-medusae is a species from the genus Astrophytum in the cactus family(Cactaceae). The specific epithet caput-medusae means ' head of Medusa '.
description
Astrophytum caput-medusae grows singly or rarely with several shoots and has a spindle-shaped, thickened, fleshy taproot up to 15 centimeters long . Its strongly reduced shoot is covered with paper-like bristles in the axillae . The 3 to 8 (rarely 1 to 17) cylindrical, slightly 3-edged warts in the youth stage are up to 19 centimeters long and 2 to 5 millimeters in diameter. They are leathery, cartilaginous, slightly wrinkled and covered with whitish dots. The areoles are in two parts. The thorn- bearing, white woolly areoles sit at the end of the tip of the warts and have 0 to 4 slightly upright, light to dark thorns up to 3 millimeters long. The areoles that carry flowers are larger and are located between 1.8 and 4.6 centimeters from the tip of the wart on the top of the warts.
The individual, funnel-shaped flowers appear on younger, not fully grown warts. They are bright yellow with an orange-red base, are up to 4.7 centimeters long and reach a diameter of up to 5.3 centimeters. Your pericarpel and the slender flower tube are covered with scales and white wool.
The egg-shaped fruits are long with a diameter of 0.8 centimeters to 2 centimeters. Young fruits are green and fleshy. They are covered in paper-like scales and white wool. There is no remnant of a flower. When ripe, the fruits dry up and tear irregularly. The fruits contain black, shiny, hat-shaped seeds up to 3 millimeters in length and width.
Distribution, systematics and endangerment
Astrophytum caput-medusae is common in the Mexican state of Nuevo León .
The first description as Digitostigma caput-medusae and the monotypic genus Digitostigma was published in 2002 by Carlos Gerardo Velazco and Manuel Nevárez . However, the description was invalid under Article 37.5 of the ICBN . The clarification of the systematic position of the species turned out to be difficult, since it combines characteristics of the genera Ariocarpus , Leuchtenbergia and Astrophytum . David Richard Hunt placed the species as Astrophytum caput-medusae in the newly created subgenus Stigmatodactylus of the genus Astrophytum .
In the Red List of Threatened Species of IUCN is the species as " Critically Endangered (CR) ", d. H. listed as critically endangered.
proof
literature
- Edward F. Anderson : The Great Cactus Lexicon . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , p. 178-179 .
- Jonas Lüthy: Digitostigma caput-medusae Velazco & Navárz . In: Cacti and other succulents . Volume 54, No. 10, pp. 262-266
Individual evidence
- ↑ Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton: Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names . Birkhäuser 2004, ISBN 3-540-00489-0 , p. 40.
- ↑ Nuevo genero de la familia Cactaceae en el Estado de Nuevo Leon, Mexico: Digitostigma caput-medusae Velazco et Nevarez sp. nov. In: Cactaceas y Suculentas Mexicanas . Volume 47, No. 4, pp. 79-84, 2002.
- ↑ D. Hunt comb. Nov. In: Bulletin of the International Cactaceae Systematics Group . Volume 15, April 2003, p. 6.
- ↑ Astrophytum caput-medusae in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.2. Posted by: Gómez-Hinostrosa, C. & Hernández, HM, 2009. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
