''Copiapoa atacamensis'' is a species of

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gre ...

from the

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the ...

in the province of

Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. After the Spanish American ...

in northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

., p. 174 Its relationship with other species of ''

Copiapoa ''Copiapoa'' is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, from the dry coastal deserts, particularly the Atacama Desert, of northern Chile. Description It comprises 32 morphologically defined species and 5 heterotypic subspe ...

'', such as ''C. calderana'', are unclear .

Description

''Copiapoa atacamensis'' is a globose cactus, either solitary or clump-forming. Its stems are gray-green with a whitish bloom and are up to across with 12–16 ribs. The overall appearance is very spiny. There is a single straight central spine to each

areole 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 ...

, long, and five to seven more slender radial spines, long. The fragrant yellow flowers open widely and are long. They are followed by green to rose coloured fruits. Growing in the

, one of the driest places in the world, it has a taproot which is considerably longer than the stem and which it uses for storing water.

Systematics

''Copiapoa atacamensis'' was named by Harry Middleditch in 1980. The relationships among some of the species of ''Copiapoa'' are unclear . ''C. atacamensis'' has been treated as a subspecies of ''C. calderana'' under the name ''C. calderana'' subsp. ''atacamensis''; alternatively ''C. calderana'' may be reduced to the variety ''calderana'' of ''C. atacamensis''. ''Copiapoa boliviana'' is given as a synonym of ''C. atacamensis'' by some sources; others consider this name to be unresolved or to be a synonym of ''C. echinoides''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1131141 Cacti of South America Endemic flora of Chile Flora of northern Chile Atacama Desert Plants described in 1980 Cactoideae