Opuntia chaffeyi
Opuntia chaffeyi in culture
Opuntia chaffeyi is a flowering plant in the genus Opuntia ( Opuntia ) from the cactus family ( Cactaceae ). The epithet honors the type Elswood Chaffey (1850-1920), who discovered the species. The endangered Opuntienart loses at the site during the dry season their instincts and survived with the help of a rhizome. A Spanish common name is " Sacasil ".
Description
The very small Opuntia chaffeyi grows much branched and decumbent. Your instincts arise from a rhizome, which is up to 35 centimeters long and has a diameter of up to 4 inches. The newly trained annually soft, slightly flattened drive sections are pale blue-green or reddish. They are only about 7 millimeters thick and up to 5 inches long. Their leaves are tiny. The small round areolae are initially white, brown later, woolly and carry numerous yellow glochids. The needle-like spike ( rarely are available to three ) is white to pale yellow.
The petals are lemon yellow and the outside slightly reddish. About the fruits and seeds is not known.
Systematics, distribution and hazard
Opuntia chaffeyi is distributed only in a very small area of the Mexican state of Zacatecas. The first description was published in 1913 by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose.
Opuntia chaffeyi is on the Red List of Threatened Species IUCN as " Critically Endangered (CR ) ', ie as threatened with extinction, classified.