''Cleistocactus winteri'' is a succulent of the family

Cactaceae 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 Gree ...

. Its common name is the golden rat tail. ''Cleistocactus winteri'' subsp. ''colademono'', as its synonym ''Cleistocactus colademononis'', 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 (Nor ...

's Award of Garden Merit.

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 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 File:IMG 0508-Cleistocactus winteri ssp. colademono.jpg, Flower buds of ''C. winteri'' subsp. ''colademonis''

Subspecies

Recognized Subspecies:

Distribution

''Cleistocactus winteri'' is distributed in the Bolivian 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.

David Richard Hunt David Richard Hunt (25 September 1938 – 20 May 2019) was an English botanist and taxonomist. He was a specialist in cacti and the spiderwort family. He notably compiled the 1999 CITES Cactaceae Checklist. Personal life Hunt was married to o ...

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