Copiapoa grandiflora
subsp.
ritteri
(Ritter)
Doweld
Sukkulenty
4(1-2): 56 (2002)
Basionym:
C.
esmeraldana
Ritter,
Kakteen in
Südamerika
3:1064 (1980)
T
he
name C.
esmeraldana
is now considered
to be associated with the small geophytic plant on Las Lomitas, an
area just to the south of Esmeralda within the Pan de Azúcar
National Park. This ties in well with Ritter’s location which he
describes as a steep coast south of Esmeralda. This small plateau
area is particularly foggy and cool being at 900m in altitude. The
plants are not common and we found only a few scattered
individuals. The largest plants we found were always solitary, up
to 40mm across with a grey-green epidermis and a little chin
underneath the areole. The formation of offsets is rare. Spination
is weak, with 6-8 radial spines about 5mm long and 1 or 2 centrals
up to 10mm long.
Figure 25 Copiapoa grandiflora subsp.
ritteri FR1457 flowering
in cultivation – note the very large campanulate flower
The root is very
large and tuberous. There was lots of evidence of guanaco activity and it looked
as though they eat the heads and possibly the roots of the plants,
and I consider it endangered because of this. I have studied
original Ritter material in cultivation from a propagation of
FR1457 which matches up closely with the plants seen in habitat
except the plant epidermis is much more green. The most
significant feature of this taxon which I have seen only on
cultivated plants is the large, campanulate shaped flower which
emerges from the dense wool covering the apex. The flower shape is
quite unlike
Copiapoa humilis
and indicates
that this taxon cannot belong to the
C.
humilis
group. It is now
considered to be a small growing geophytic and neotenous relative
of
Copiapoa grandiflora.
Alexander Doweld has recently made the combination
C.
grandiflora
subsp.
ritteri
(the
species epithet “esmeraldana” being changed to “ritteri” at the
rank of subspecies) which seems appropriate.
Figure 26 Flower sections of Copiapoa humilis
from Guanillos on
left, and Copiapoa grandiflora subsp. ritteri right.
The flower
shapes of these two are very different
