''Copiapoa marginata'' is a species of clump-forming

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 Greek ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. It is native to 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 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 east a ...

Description

''Copiapoa marginata'' grows to a height of up to . The plant bears long yellow flowers in spring and summer.

Subspecies and varieties

* ''Copiapoa marginata'' var. ''bridgesii'' * ''Copiapoa marginata'' subsp. ''robustispina''.

References

* * Cactoideae Cacti of South America Endemic flora of Chile Flora of northern Chile Atacama Desert Near threatened flora of South America {{Cactus-stub