Description of T. horripilus ssp. wrobelianus

Translated from the German
Body: Spherical to flat globular merging into a tuberous main root. Rarely solitary usually offsetting greatly from the base and thereby forming large groups to ± 30 cm in diameter. Single bodies 4,5cm - 5,5cm in diameter. Height 2,5cm - 4,5cm. Tubercles: Base rhombic and ca. 0,6 cm wide, 0,7cm long and 0,6cm high with well-rounded edges. Areoles: Oblong, 0,3cm - 0,5cm long and 0,2cm - 0,3cm wide. Young areoles near the apex covered with short, curly, white wool later becoming bare.

Radial spines: Mostly 15 - 17 rarely up to 19, white. The upper 1,0cm - 1,6cm long, ca. last third tipped bay to black. The lower 0,6cm - 1,2cm long and only few mm tipped bay to black. Radiating star-shaped around the areole, the upper somewhat more disorderly, in up to three series. Straight to slightly curved. Central spines: One, straight, standing vertically on the areoles axis. 1,4cm - 2,0cm long, lower half white then with a transitional zone passing into a pale- to dark brown tip.

Flower: bell-shaped - funnel-shaped ca. 2,5cm long, 2cm wide, crimson; Pericarpel: ca. 4mm wide and high, olive, without scales; Receptacle: with only few scales, sepals lanceolate to spatulate, sharpened at the end, outer petals to 15mm long, to 4mm wide; Filaments: distributed over the entire inside wall of the receptacle, to 5mm long, whitish at the base, pink above. Anthers: golden yellow. Style: ca. 11mm long, white at the base, pink at the end, stigma lobes spread out to curved, pinkish orange.

Fruit: ± spherical, ca. 6mm long and wide, olive, thick walled, dehising vertically; Seeds: black, long ovoid to cap shaped, testa cells ± round domed, the area of the hilum edge clearly flat.

Location: north of Metztitlan near Jilos (Gilo, Xilo).

Related taxa

Turbinicarpus horripilus ssp. wrobelianus is part of the saueri aggregate of taxa, together with the following:

• T. horripilus
• T. knuthianus
• T. saueri
• T. saueri ssp. gonzalezii
• T. saueri ssp. nelissae
• T. saueri ssp. septentrionalis
• T. saueri ssp. verduzcoi
• T. saueri ssp. ysabelae
• T. viereckii
• T. viereckii ssp. major
• T. viereckii ssp. neglectus

References

• Succulenta 79:(2), 90-92, 2000
• Stefan Nitzschke - personal communication.

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