''Cleistocactus winteri'' is a

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

of the family

Cactaceae A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

. Its common name is the golden rat tail. ''

Cleistocactus colademononis ''Cleistocactus colademononis'' is a succulent of the family Cactaceae. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticul ...

'', which has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

, is sometimes considered to be a subspecies, ''Cleistocactus winteri'' subsp. ''colademono''.

Description

This plant is a columnar cactus that forms huge tangled mounds of fairly rapid growth hanging or creeping, green shoots, up to high with stems in diameter and 16 to 17 ribs, with 50 spines long. The brown

areoles In botany, areoles are small light- to dark-colored bumps on cacti out of which grow clusters of spines. Areoles are important diagnostic features of cacti, and identify them as a family distinct from other succulent plants. Gordon Rowley - Wh ...

on it are close together. It has many short bristly golden spines that are flexible, thin and straight and literally cover the surface of the stems. The approximately 20 stronger central spines are 5 to 10 millimeters long. The plant requires water during the summer and to be kept dry in the winter. It reproduces by seeds and cuttings. It has salmon-pink flowers in spring and summer that are long and in diameter. Depending on the position of the shoots, the flowers are bent upwards to outwards to upright. The bracts are orange-red. The outer ones are radiating to slightly reflexed, the inner ones distinctly shorter and erect. Its flowers survive for a few days before transitioning to fruit for a short period of time which are long. The stamens and style protrude from the flower. The barrel-shaped, green to reddish-green fruits are 7 to 10 millimeters long and reach the same diameter. Image:Cleistocactus winteri.JPG, form Image:Cleistocactus winteri up close.JPG, close-up File:IMG 1007-1-Cleistocactus winteri.jpg, Flower

Distribution

''Cleistocactus winteri'' is distributed in the

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

n department of Santa Cruz in the province of Florida at altitudes of about 1400 to 1500 meters where it hangs on rocks.

Taxonomy

The first description as'' Winteria aureispina'' was in 1962 by

Friedrich Ritter Friedrich Ritter (9 May 1898 – 9 April 1989) was a German botanist who collected and described many species of cacti. ''Ritterocereus'' is named in his honour. Friedrich Ritter studied biology, geology and paleontology at the University of Mar ...

. David Richard Hunt placed the species in the genus ''Cleistocactus'' in 1988. A new name was necessary because the name ''Cleistocactus aureispinus'' Frič (1928) already existed. Nomenclature synonyms are ''Winterocereus aureispinus'' (F.Ritter) Backeb. (1966), ''Hildewintera aureispina'' (F.Ritter) F.Ritter (1968), ''Loxanthocereus aureispinus'' (F.Ritter) F.Buxbaum (1974), ''Borzicactus aureispinus'' (F.Ritter) G.D.Rowley (1975) and ''Cleistocactus aureispinus'' (F. Ritter) D.R.Hunt (1987, nom. illegal).

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q150196 winteri Cacti of South America Flora of Argentina Flora of Bolivia Flora of Peru Flora of Uruguay