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Parodia microsperma var. dichroacantha (F.H.Brandt & Weskamp) Brickwood

Family: CACTACEAE · Variety or form of Parodia microsperma

Publication: Mitteilungsbl. Inter-Parodia-Kette 22: 13. 2004 Remarks: not seen; from Repert. Pl. Succ. 55: 12. 2006

Description

Parodia dichroacantha is a globular to cylindrical cactus covered with strong hooked central spines at the top of which emerge bright orange-red flowers.

Stem: Fan-shaped, 4-7 in thick and up to 20 or more cm in width, dark green to reddish-grey.

Central spine: Hooked, strong, pale-brown, grey-brown, red-brown or brown-chocolate.

Radial spines: Rigid.

Flowers: Orange, orange-red to Scarlet (but also yellow).

Blooming season: Summer.

Origin and Habitat

Salta, Northwest Cafayate (and Tucumán?)

Cultivation and Propagation

Parodia microsperma is relatively easy to grow on its own roots and quite resistant to cultivation. The only things that can kill this plant are cold and overwatering. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to provide adequate growing conditions in order to obtain compact plant with many flowers.

Soil: Use a an open and free draining mineral compost with little organic matter (peat, humus) that allows therefore roots to breath (as it is rot prone). Outdoors a well-draining rocky or sandy soil is ideal.

Pots: It needs a relatively shallow pot to accommodate its fibrous roots and provide a very good drainage. It may stay in the same pot for many years.

Watering: Needs regular water in summer. Keep rather dry in winter, tends to lose its roots in winter.

Fertilization: Feed with a high potassium fertilizer in summer during the growing season diluted to one-fourth potency and mix into the watering can for application.

Hardiness: Keep dry at 5- 10° C in winter, but can tolerate sporadic light frost if kept on the dry side prior to, and during, cold weather.

Exposition: The plant tolerates very bright situations, if kept too dark they may become overly lush and greener and could be prone to rotting due to over watering. Strong light encourages flowering and heavy wool and spine production, but is likely to suffer from sun scorch or stunted growth if over exposed to direct sunlight during the hottest part of the day in summer.

Pests & diseases: It may be attractive to a variety of insects, but plants in good condition should be nearly pest-free, particularly if they are grown in a mineral potting-mix, with good exposure and ventilation. Nonetheless, watch carefully for any significant decline in health. This may signal a pest problem that should be dealt with quickly in order to prevent scarring, stunting and even death.

- Red spiders: Red spiders may be effectively rubbed up by watering or misting the plants from above.

- Mealy bugs: Mealy bugs occasionally develop aerial into the new growth among the leaves with disfiguring results, but the worst types develop underground on the roots and are invisible except by their effects. Eliminate mealybug infestations by dabbing the critters with cotton swabs dipped in alcohol or by soaking the succulent’s roots in a systemic insecticide.

- Scales: Scales are rarely a problem.

- Rot: This species is particularly easy and accommodating, seldom suffer of cryptogamic diseases. Rot it is only a minor problem with cacti if the plants are watered and “aired” correctly. If they are not, fungicides won’t help all that much.

Propagation: By Seeds. The seed of this plant are extremely small and must be sown on the surface of the germination substrate (not buried!!) But the seedlings after germination are so minuscule and delicate that it is quite problematic to keep them alive. So for this species it is usually used the baggy germination technique (in a sterilized pot hermetically closed in a plastic sachet)

Bibliography

Major references and further lectures

  1. Gerhard Gröner, Erich Götz “Beautiful Cacti: A Basic Grower’s Guide” Sterling, 1992

  2. Backeberg C., “Das Kakteenlexikon” 1966

  3. Krainz, Hans et al. “Die Kakteen” 1956-1975

  4. Hans Hecht “BLV-Handbuch der Kakteen” BLV-Verlagsgesellschaft, 1982

    1. E Haustein “Der Kosmos Kakteenfuehrer (the Kosmos Cactus Guide)” Balogh Scientific Books, United States, 01/Dec/1998

  6. Kessler H., “Die FR-Parodien” Stachelpost, 7 : 223-224, 247, 1970

  7. Ritter F., “Kakteen in Südamerika”, 1980

  8. Weskamp W., “Die Gattung Parodia” 1987

  9. Kiesling, R. & Ortega-Baes, P. 2013. Parodia microsperma. In: IUCN 2013. “IUCN Red List of Threatened Species”. Version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 March 2014.

  10. Edward Anderson “The Cactus family” Timber Press, Incorporated, 2001

  11. James Cullen, Sabina G. Knees, H. Suzanne Cubey “The European Garden Flora Flowering Plants: A Manual for the Identification of Plants Cultivated in Europe, Both Out-of-Doors and Under Glass” Cambridge University Press, 11/Aug/2011

  12. David R Hunt; Nigel P Taylor; Graham Charles; International Cactaceae Systematics Group. “The New Cactus Lexicon” dh books, 2006

  13. Urs Eggli, Leonard E. Newton “Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names” Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg 2010

  14. Willy Cullmann, Erich Götz (Dozent Dr.), Gerhard Gröner “The encyclopedia of cacti” Portland, OR: Timber Press, 1986