Description

Ariocarpus Kotschoubeyanus Cactus Seeds

Commonly called “living rocks,” Ariocarpus cacti are edaphic specialist plants widely distributed in and around the edges of the Chihuahuan Desert. They are scattered in a large number of small, isolated populations, generally on limestone derived gypsum silt plains and on hills. The area where they grow must be quite wet during the rainy season (Summer). Some of these areas become flooded periodically during the summer rainy season.

These plants are extremely cryptic and are very difficult to spot as they blend in well with the terrain around them resembling dried mud. When they are found, it is usually due to their pinkish flowers. In times of severe drought the whole above-ground portion of these plants can shrink and be covered by mud, but the taproot remains alive. The main threats to this species are human settlements, waste dumps, illegal collecting, and local medicinal uses. Some localities have been partly depleted by illegal collectors.

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus are very flat geophyte cacti that produce small star-shaped rosettes. They in most cases don’t reach more than only a few centimetres above the ground. Although they can form clumps, often only a small disc of tubercles can be seen flat at the soil surface, however these plants grow a large tap root below the surface of the compost.

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus v. albiflorus found here.