Frailea

The genus is named after Manuel Fraile , keeper of the Cacti collection of the United States Department of Agriculture .

Representatives of the genus - plants with spherical or short cylindrical shoots with a height of usually not more than 10 cm and a stem diameter of 2-5 cm. Plants often branch. Areola small, often located. Ribs and nipples are mild. Spines up to 0.7 cm in length, from light yellow to black.

Buds densely pubescent. The flowers are different shades of yellow, large in comparison with the size of the plant itself. A characteristic feature of frayl is obligate gluestogamy. At the same time, cross-pollination is possible, as in most species and varieties hazmogamy (opening) flowers develop too. There are no cleistogamic flowers only in two species: Frailea chiquitana and Frailea larae . Usually, only clestogamous flowers are formed in young plants, and hazmogamy are formed in older plants. Hazmogamic flowers can form both in summer and autumn, when they open at an ambient temperature of around 20 ° C. Seeds are large, easily formed, in large numbers, they germinate quickly and well.

The homeland is the northeast of Argentina, the east of Bolivia, the south of Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Fraleyley are of interest from the point of view of collectibles, aided by miniature sizes.

In culture do not represent the big difficulties. In greenhouses with very high temperatures in the summer, it is worth shading; they grow well in permeable nutrient soil, as well as in purely mineral substrates. Vaccination is not required and is even undesirable because it changes the appearance of the plant. It is believed that in the culture of fralei have a short life expectancy of less than 10 years, but under good conditions, plants of a number of species live more than 20 years, and in botanical gardens there are plants older than half a century. Seeds of most species quickly lose their germination, after 2-3 (-4) years. Only for seeds of Frailea asterioides excellent germination of seeds stored for 10 years was observed.

The first found copy of Frailea pumila was attributed by Charles Lemer in 1838 to echinocactus ( Echinocactus ). Britton and Rose identified Fraleyas from the Echinocactus genus during their programmatic study of 1919-1923.

Frailea Britton & Rose The Cactaceae; descriptions and illustrations of plants of the cactus family 3: 208 . 1922.

Types

More than 115 names of species of the genus are known, but only 20 species are considered generally accepted ^[3] .

• Frailea alexandri
• Frailea altasensis
• Frailea amerhauseri
• Frailea asterioides
• Frailea atrobella
• Frailea buenekeri
  • Frailea buenekeri subsp. buenekeri
  • Frailea buenekeri subsp. densispina
• Frailea buiningiana
• Frailea castanea
  • Frailea castanea subsp. castanea
  • Frailea castanea subsp. harmoniana
• Frailea cataphracta
  • Frailea cataphracta subsp. cataphracta
  • Frailea cataphracta subsp. duchii
  • Frailea cataphracta subsp. melitae
  • Frailea cataphracta subsp. tuyensis
• Frailea chiquitana
• Frailea curvispina
• Frailea erythracantha
• Frailea friedrichii
• Frailea gracillima
  • Frailea gracillima subsp. gracillima
  • Frailea gracillima subsp. albifusca
  • Frailea gracillima subsp. horstii
• Frailea grahliana
  • Frailea grahliana subsp. grahliana
  • Frailea grahliana subsp. moseriana
• Frailea knippeliana
• Frailea mammifera
• Frailea perumbilicata
• Frailea phaeodisca
• Frailea pseudopulcherrima
• Frailea pumila
  • Frailea pumila subsp. pumila
  • Frailea pumila subsp. deminuta
• Frailea pygmaea
  • Frailea pygmaeae subsp. pygmaea
  • Frailea pygmaea subsp. albicolumnaris
  • Frailea pygmaea subsp. fulviseta
• Frailea schilinzkyana
• Frailea stockingeri

• Frailea (eng.) : Information about the taxon on the site Tropicos .
• www.frailea.com