| | The genera of Cactaceae |
~ Copiapoa
The plants condensed-cactoid (with a long, tuberous taproot); low and very compacted in their entirety. The plants’ appearance dominated by large, crowded, semi-spherical, naked tubercles with areoles sunken between these. The plants not vegetatively reduced to tubercles; not as in Blossfeldia. The stems not spiny; green, globose to barrel-shaped. The plants unbranched; erect; solitary; to 0.3–1 m high (3–5 cm in diameter). The stems not segmented; somewhat ribbed and grooved (being grooved between the rows of tubercles). The ribs about 8; more or less longitudinal. The grooves deep and narrow. The plants very conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles prominent, hemispherical on the upper parts of the plant. The tubercles more or less connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles sunken between the tubercles; distant; borne in longitudinal series (more or less); simple. The flowering areoles resembling the non-flowering ones. The areoles woolly; without spines. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers solitary; terminal; one per areole; rotate; sessile; medium-sized; 3–4 cm long (and in diameter); regular. The perianth yellow. The perianth segments fairly relatively short, broad; blunt. Stamens numerous.
The mature fruit naked; spindle shaped. The seeds 1.2–1.5 mm long (about 0.7 mm wide); about 0.7 mm wide and almost twice as long, slightly convex, black; not encased in bony arils; with hilum and micropyle conjunct. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. High Andes, Bolivia.
Classification. 1 species (C. knizei). Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Notocacteae.
Poorly described.
Images. • Cintia knizei: © www.cactiguide.com.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2018 onwards. The genera of Cactaceae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th November 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
