€37,10

Rapicactus subterraneus (Backeb.) Buxb. & Oehme 

🌱 Morphology
  Small, slow-growing, solitary cactus with a bluish-green, club-shaped, globose-cylindrical, or slightly prostrate body that can reach about 15 cm in height and 3 cm in diameter. Its most unique feature is its enormous tuberous root, connected to the stem by an extremely narrow neck that can be partially buried. The tubercles are small, angular, and spirally arranged. Each areole bears about 16–19 white, glassy radial spines, 2–6 mm long, and typically 2 rigid, erect, grayish-black central spines up to 2 cm long. The apex appears slightly woolly.

🌍 Distribution, habitat, and family
Endemic to northeastern Mexico, mainly in Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, and San Luis Potosí, at altitudes between approximately 1,400 and 1,700 m. It inhabits open xerophilous scrublands on shallow slopes, frequently in calcareous and gypsum-rich soils. It belongs to the Cactaceae family.

❄️ Temperature · USDA Zone 9b
It tolerates minimum temperatures down to −4 ºC for short periods, provided it is kept completely dry and well-ventilated. Cold humidity is especially dangerous for its tuberous root.

☀️ Lighting
It requires plenty of light and several hours of direct sun to maintain compact growth and encourage dense spination. During active growth, a Daily Light Integral (DLI) of approximately 20–30 mol·m⁻²·day⁻¹ PAR is recommended, gradually acclimating specimens to intense sun.

💧 Growth cycle and watering
Winter rest. Keep completely dry during winter. Resume watering in spring, doing so abundantly but very infrequently, allowing the substrate to dry out completely between waterings. Its tuberous root is extremely sensitive to excess moisture: overwatering can cause cracks, rot, and loss of the plant. Excellent ventilation should be maintained during the summer.

🌸 Flowering
Flowers appear at the apex during the warm season. They are large in relation to the body, infundibuliform, approximately 2–3 cm, with shades ranging from violet-pink and magenta to deep pink, generally with a darker central band. The contrast between the flowers and the white spination is particularly ornamental.

🌿 Nutrition
During the active growth period, a fertilizer high in assimilable calcium and low in nitrogen is recommended, such as Desert CHOICE® Cactáceas, applied once a month when watering. Before flowering, it can be supplemented with Desert CHOICE® Floración.

This is an inimitable xerophyte grown in Madrid in a technical square pot with substrate activated with mycorrhizal fungi and biofungicides.

8x8 cm pot

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