Grusonia pulchella
Grusonia pulchella is a species in the genus Grusonia from the cactus family ( Cactaceae ). The specific epithet pulchella means (Latin pulchellus ) cute '.
Description
Grusonia pulchella growing low-growing, is richly branched, forming mats 10 to 20 inches of height. The roots are bulbous. The cylindrical to ellipsoidal or clavate, distinctly gehöckerten drive sections are 1-4 inches long (rarely to 10 cm) and have diameters of 0.5 to 2.5 centimeter. The circular areolae are covered with white to gray wool and yellow to reddish yellow, bebärteten, up to 8 mm long glochids. The eight to 15 initially white to reddish- brown spines greyish later. You are the majority of the areoles near the shoot tips. The thorns are straddling up bent downward and flattened. The longest of them are up to 6 inches long.
The pink to purple flowers reach a length of 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters. However, the inverted conical, smooth fruits are reddish and fleshy, dry at full maturity quickly and eventually fall off. They are 1.5 to 3 centimeters long, and have diameters 8 to 12 millimeters.
Ecology
The dry fruits are dispersed by the wind.
Systematics and distribution
Grusonia pulchella is common in the United States in Central Nevada and in the adjacent border regions of California and Utah in the vegetation of the Mohave Desert.
The first description as Opuntia pulchella was made in 1863 by George Engelmann. Harold Ernest Robinson set the style in 1973 in the genus Grusonia. Nomenclatural synonyms are Corynopuntia pulchella ( Engelm. ) FMKnuth (1936) and Micropuntia pulchella ( Engelm. ) C.Holland (1997, nom. Inval. ICBN article 33.3).