Sclerocactus mesae-verdae
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Sclerocactus mesae-verdae |
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| ( Boissev. & C. Davidson ) LDBenson |
Sclerocactus mesae-verdae is a species of the genus Sclerocactus in the cactus family(Cactaceae). An English common name is "Mesa-Verde Cactus". The species is endangered and was included in Appendix I of the Washington Convention onEndangered Species .
description
The gray to gray-green, 10 to 18-ribbed plant body is pressed-spherical to egg-shaped and reaches heights of 4 to 8 cm (rarely 18 cm) and a diameter of 4 to 8 cm. The woolly areoles are circular to elliptical. The central spine is usually missing. Very rarely there are up to 4 gray to straw-colored, 1 to 1.4 cm long central spines, one of which is hooked. The plants usually grow individually. Your taproot is branched.
The funnel-shaped to bell-shaped, sweet-smelling flowers are 2 to 2.5 cm long and 1.5 to 3 cm in diameter. The bracts are usually light yellow, rarely light pink and have a beige, brown or purple central stripe. The flowering period begins at the end of April.
The cylindrical, 6 to 12 mm long fruits are brownish to brown and contain 10 to 20 black, glossy, fine-black seeds that ripen within 4 to 6 weeks.
distribution
Sclerocactus mesae-verdae is on the Colorado Plateau in the Indian reserves of desert areas in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico endemic spread. It colonizes flat, barren, dry, low hills at altitudes between 1200 and 1800 meters and grows together with Sclerocactus parviflorus , Echinocereus fendleri , Opuntia polyacantha , Altriplex confertifolia , Frankenia jamesii and Hilaria jamesii .
Systematics
The epithet of the species refers to the Mesa Verde area , its main area of distribution.
Charles Hercules Boissevain discovered the species in 1940 not far from Cortez in the US state of Colorado and together with Carol Davidson wrote the first description in the same year under the name Coloradoa mesae-verdae . The American botanist Lyman David Benson placed it in 1951 as Echinocactus mesae-verdae in the genus Echinocactus . The assignment to the genus Sclerocactus was made in 1966 by Benson. The 1972 classification of Gerald Kench Arp as Pediocactus mesae-verdae is now considered a synonym .
Sclerocactus mesae-verdae is closely related to Sclerocactus wetlandicus and belongs to the section Mesae-Verdae of the genus Sclerocactus .
Danger
In the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN , the species is listed as " Least Concern (LC) ". H. listed as not endangered.
photos
Sclerocactus mesae-verdae :
Rare pale pink flowers (Colorado).
Closed flowers in the early morning (New Mexico).
Cream flowers (New Mexico).
literature
- Fritz Hochstätter (Ed.): The Genus Sclerocactus . Selbstverlag, 2005, pp. 13-14, 297; Photos pp. 81–87, 238. ISBN 3-00-016153-8 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Colorado Cacti . P. 54, 1940
- ^ Leaflets of Western Botany . Volume 6, p. 163, 1951.
- ^ Cactus and Succulent Journal (US). Volume 38, p. 54, 1966.
- ^ Cactus and Succulent Journal (US). Volume 44, p. 222, 1972
- ↑ Sclerocactus mesae-verdae in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Listed by: Butterworth, C. & Porter, JM, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
Web links
- Sclerocactus mesae-verdae with field number list