Copiapoa hypogaea var. laui

Copiapoa hypogaea var. laui (Diers) Hoffmann, Cact. Fl. Chil.: 120 (1989). Basionym: Copiapoa laui Diers (1980)

This remarkable plant remained undiscovered for years, presumably because of its diminutive size. When Lau found it, he thought he had found a Thelocephala (a small, tuberous rooted Neoporteria). It was not until he saw the flowers and characteristic fruits that he realised that he had found the smallest known Copiapoa. It was described as C. laui by Diers in KuaS 31(12): 362-5 (1980) and then, in 1989, reduced to a variety of C. hypogaea by Hoffmann.

This is an outstanding plant to cultivate, making clusters of small heads, each only up to 20mm diameter and with a well developed taproot. The flowers are freely produced throughout the summer, often in great profusion. I have observed in seed raised plants some variation in body form, with some clones remaining quite flat while others tend to develop elongated bodies. The clusters are never as flat to the ground as those in the wild, but good light and careful feeding and watering should result in a good clump. Propagation can also be achieved by rooting the heads, which are slow at first while they make tap roots and then grow quite quickly; the woolly offsets sometimes start to develop during one growing season, and grow to full size during the next.

We found large mats of this plant in the Guanillos Valley near to Esmeralda, growing with C. cinerascens var. grandiflora and C. humilis var. esmeraldana. It was difficult to walk without stepping on the heads. It grew in fairly flat, gravelly areas near the tops of low hills; the heads were densely packed, making it impossible to decide how many clusters there actually were. Roger Ferryman found a larger headed form of this variety, which had less of the white wool, growing in the hills further south.

Copiapoa hypogaeavar. laui in cultivation,ex habitat, RMF 162

Copiapoa cinerea var. krainziana

Copiapoa cinerea var. krainziana (Ritter) Slaba; Kaktusy XXXIII Special p3 (1997). Basionym: C. krainziana Ritter in Taxon 12: 30 (1963)

Synonym: C. krainziana var. scopulina Ritter (1963)

This wonderful variety, with its dense covering of long, soft, white spines, must be the most easily recognized Copiapoa. It can be found growing in the hills north of Taltal. At first, as you walk up the narrow valley called the Quebrada San Ramon, you see a remarkable assortment of characters in the copiapoas. There is every combination of colours in the spines, body and wool, and clustering plants of all shapes and sizes. Previous authors have suggested that these are hybrids between C. cinerea, and its varieties haseltoniana and krainziana. As you climb higher, plants matching Ritter's C. krainziana var. scopulina can be found among the populations. At around this altitude there are occasional plants of a more densely white-spined form which has often been exported to Europe as C. krainziana, but these plants have stiffer, shorter spines than the true C. cinerea var. krainziana which occurs at a higher altitude.

This plant has long been a favourite of mine, and I remember the day in November 1994 when I was in Chile, walking up a valley and wondering if it was the right one in which to find the plant, and thinking of the reports of C. krainziana being extinct in habitat (in hindsight, I can only presume that the author had walked up the wrong valley!). Hours earlier my friends and I had left the car near the coast road and had begun our trek inland in search of this plant, but so far without luck. They decided to call it a day, but I said I would walk for another half an hour, and so I carried on along this twisting valley. Then, twenty minutes later, I rounded a corner and was confronted with a hillside covered with C. cinerea var. krainziana. You can imagine how I felt, it was like visiting an old friend and finding him at home! The older plants had long stems, only the top covered in soft white spines, the lower parts blackened. Some plants actually had black spines mixed in with the white. I am very pleased to report that the population was extensive, and appeared to be healthy although not in flower or fruit - I suspect due to drought. Growing with it was a small, solitary species of Copiapoa which I now believe to be a northern form of C. rupestris.

Copiapoa cinerea var. krainziana in cultivation, ex habitat, Lau 871