Miqueliopuntia
Miqueliopuntia miquelii (top left)
Miqueliopuntia miquelii is the only species of the monotypic genus Miqueliopuntia in the cactus family ( Cactaceae ). Both botanical name of the genus and the epithet of the kind honor the botanist Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel.
Description
The relatively small, upright, bushy Miqueliopuntia miquelii forms large thickets of up to 1.5 meters high and several meters in circumference. Your clearly articulated, strong, cylindrical shoots are 7-20 inches long and can reach diameter 3-6 cm. The warts are distinctive, extended and well pronounced. The fleshy leaves are reddish, acuminate, 3-5 mm long and fall off early. The occurring on all parts about 60 areolae are hairy. Glochids are always available. They are 4-8 mm long and usually found in the upper part of the areoles. The round areolae are 4-7 millimeters apart. The 8 to 16 slender, needle-like spines are yellowish to dark brown. From all areoles spring the numerous, erect and unequal spines, which can be up to 8 inches long.
The white to pale pink flowers do not open fully. They appear near the shoot tips and up to 7 inches long. Your cylindrical gehöckertes Perikarpell is covered with bristles. The Perianthsegmente are short.
The pale green to whitish fruits are spherical to elongated and covered with bristly spines. The variable-shaped seeds are yellowish white to ocher and 3.5 to 5 millimeters long.
Systematics and distribution
The distribution area of Miqueliopuntia miquelii extends along the Chilean coast from the Elqui Valley to the north of Copiapo. The name of the genus Miqueliopuntia in use since about 1929. A valid description was in 1980 by Friedrich Ritter. The first description of single species as Opuntia miquelii was made in 1838 by Hippolyte Boissel de Monville.