Astrophytum capricorne, introduction
Poselger, H. found Astrophytum capricorne 1851 on his America tour at La Rinconada, Nuevo León, near Saltillo. It is surprising that just this little village visited Dr. Wislizenus already on 24th May 1847 and described the flora, without mentioning Astrophytum. The records show that his military unit there had no night's lodging. The plants from La Rinconada have typical rust-red flakes at the apex, at other habitats in Coahuila populations have now been found in which the flakes are entirely white (Bustamante). But even apart from the flakes-color Capricorne is very variable with regard to the flakes density, spine color, -thickness, -length and their arrangement on the body. The plants are very conservative however, regarding their 8 ribs. It has been a great coincidence that for the first description an extremely rare 7-rib plant was available. The flowers are large, the fruits very rich in seeds. In a cristat-form from La Rinconada 587 seeds were counted.
Astrophytum capricorne
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