Curtis’s Botanical Magazine – plate 6061 (vol. 99, 1873), Pelecyphora aselliformis

I have just started my first batch ever of Pelecyphora aselliformis from seed and found this a good opportunity to post on plate 6061 from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine describing this peculiar species.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine has been published continuously since 1787 and is the longest running botanical periodical featuring color illustrations of plants. Below you’ll find what the magazine had to say on Pelecyphora aselliformis back in 1873 along with scans of the original illustration as well as the accompanying descriptive text.

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TAB. 6061.

PELECYPHORA ASELLIFORMIS VAR. CONCOLOR.

Native of Mexico.
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Nat. Ord. CACTEAE.-Tribe ECHINOCACTEAE.

Genus PELECYPHORA, Ehrb.; (Benth. and H. f. Gen. Plant., vol. i. p. 848).
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PELECYPHORA aselliformis; Ehrenberg in Bot. Zeit., vol.i. (1843) p. 737; Walp. Rep., vol. v. p. 822; Salm-Dyck Cact. in Hort. Dyck. cult. 5, et adn. 78; Först. Handb. der Cact. p. 257; Labouret. Monog. Cact. p. 148. Illust. Hortic., vol. vi. t. 186.
VAR. concolor, petalis concoloribus.

This remarkable and still very rare plant, has been long known amongst Cactus growers, and has in fact been in the trade for many years, having been imported by the brothers Tonel from Mexico, where it was said to have been found with the equally anomalous Cactaceous genus Anhalonium, (Ill. Hort., vol. xvi. t. 605 a). It was first published by Ehrenberg, from specimens grown in Berlin in 1843, but nothing was known of its floral character till Lemaire, in 1858, published in the “Illustration Horticole” quoted above, an excellent figure of it with a very full and interesting description.

The specimen here figured was forwarded by Mr. Justus Corderoy of Blewbury, early in June last, with the observation that the flower differs markedly in colour from that of Lemaire’s plant, which has an outer series of pale petals, whereas those of this are uniformly of a rose-purple, like the inner series of Lemaire’s. Though so unlike other Cacti in the sculpturing of the stem and its mammillae, Pelecyphora is not essentially different in these respects from Mammillaria ; the mammillae (which Lemaire regards as abnormal petioles and calls podaria) are vertically oblong, and crowned vertically with two contiguous rows of flat short horny cuspidate processes that overlap horizontally, and resemble the teeth of a comb ; these are analogous to the spines of a Mammillaria, but instead of being free and projecting, they lie flat, and are adnate to the ridge of the mammilla. This double series resembles curiously a wood-louse, with which insects the plant seems covered, and which fact has given it the trivial name of aselliformis.

DESCR. Stem tufted, dark green, shortly cylindric, three to four inches high, one and a half to two inches in diameter, often constricted about the middle, apex rounded. Mammillae spirally arranged, vertical, one third of an inch long, rhomboidal in a tranverse section at the middle, compressed laterally at the crown into a ridge, and contracted to a narrow base, woolly in the axils ; spines minute, short, flat, cartilaginous, linear, oblique, subfalcate, pungent, bifariously arranged on the crest of the mammilla, adnate to its surface with free tips. Flowers clustered towards the top of the stem, one and a half inch in diameter, sessile. Ovary small, naked, oblong, sunk in the axils of the mammillae. Perianth-tube short, free, naked, funnel-shaped ; segments in about four series, obovate-oblong ; acute, rose-purple. Stamens very numerous, inserted in the mouth of the tube, filaments slender, multi-seriate ; anthers minute. Style columnar ; stigmas with four erect lobes.---J D. H.
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Fig. 1, front and 2, side view of a mammilla ; 3, flower laid open:- all magnified.
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OCTOBER 1ST, 1873.

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The scans are courtesy of the Botanicus Digital Library, Missouri Botanical Garden and are free for non-commercial use, as long as attribution is provided.

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Curtis’s Botanical Magazine – plate 4296 (vol. 73, 1847), Lophophora williamsii

Since my early days as a “Lophophora aficionado” I’ve heard and read that the first illustration of Lophophora williamsii appeared in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1847 (plate 4296). This fact seems to be very well known – probably because of Anderson’s book Peyote, The Divine Cactus – nevertheless it’s been next to impossible to find a good reproduction of the illustration.

These days are over. The Botanicus Digital Library has scanned the material and made it available online. Below you’ll find copies of the scanned illustration as well as the accompanying description; the description is also reproduced in textual form.

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TAB. 4296.

ECHINOCACTUS WILLIAMSII.

Mr. Williams' Echinocactus.
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Nat. Ord. CACTEAE.- ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Gen. Char. (Vide supra, TAB. 4190.)
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ECHINOCACTUS Williamsii ; humilis caespitosus turbinatus inferne teres transversim cicatricatus cinereo-fuscus superne umbilicato-depressus glaucus 6-8-costatus, costis latis convexis parce tuberculatis inermibus pulvilligeris, pulvillis e pilis fasciculatis densis erectis formatis, floribus parvulis subsolitariis albo-roseis.

ECHINOCACTUS Williamsii. “Lemaire, ex Salm-Dyck in Otto et Dietr. Allgem. Gartenzeit, xiii. p. 385.” Walp. Repert. V. 5. p. 816.
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A neatly-formed species, which has a very pretty appearance when its starry blossoms are expanded. We received several plants of it at the Royal Gardens of Kew, through the favour of the Real del Monte Company, from the rocky hills of their district of mines in Mexico, with many other treasures. It flowers in the summer months.

DESCR. Our largest plants do not much exceed the size represented. They grow in a tufted manner and are often proliferous, as in the instance here shown: the parent plant being, as it were, stifled or subdued by its offspring. Each individual is turbinate: from the base to the crown, or summit, terete, of an ashy brown colour, and scarred with close transverse lines, occasioned, it would appear, by the progressive withering and contraction of the tubercles: the summit is broadly convex, but with a deep depression in the centre, glaucous, traversed from the centre outwards by 6-8 furrows, and thus divided into as many convex ridges, and these again, transversely, but more or less deeply, into rather large, rounded, more or less confluent unarmed tubercles, each of which has a dense tuft or short pencil of compact erect hairs:--no aculei. Flowers proceed from a young tubercle, near the centre of the crown. The base of the calyx is downy. The petals lanceolate, rather numerous, white, externally tipped with pale green, and having a rose-coloured line down the centre. Stamens yellow. Stigma of four spreading rays.

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The scans are courtesy of the Botanicus Digital Library, Missouri Botanical Garden and are free for non-commercial use, as long as attribution is provided.

High-resolution copies of the scans can be found in the files section of the Lophophora Google group.

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Online Articles

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John M. Coulter
A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora.
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE U. S. NATIONAL HERBARIUM
Vol. III No. 2, 1894

My local copy of the article contains Coulter's proposal for a new genus for peyote alone: Lophophora. The full, unformatted text can be found as a Project Gutenberg Etext, also an abridged (the sections relating to Ariocarpus/Anhalonium species are reproduced), formatted version of the article is available at Living Rocks of Mexico.

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Curtis's Botanical Magazine

• Plate 4296, Lophophora williamsii (vol. 73, 1847)
• Plate 6061, Pelecyphora aselliformis (vol. 99, 1873)

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Flora of North America
The Flora of North America provides an account of American plant species north of Mexico. Below I have included the descriptions for a list of species relevant to this site.

• Ariocarpus
• Astrophytum
• Epithelantha
• Lophophora

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Butterworth, C. A. & J. H. Cota-Sanchez, & R. S. Wallace
Molecular systematics of Tribe Cacteae (Cactaceae: Cactoideae): A phylogeny based on rpl16 intron sequence variation.
Systematic Botany 27(2), 2002: 257-270

The paper documents the close relationship among Acharagma, Lophophora and Obregonia. Based on DNA evidence the species are placed in a well-supported clade (the Lophophora Clade).

ABSTRACT. Parsimony analysis of plastid rpl16 sequences from 62 members of Tribe Cacteae, and four outgroup taxa yielded 1296 equally parsimonious trees of length 666. Strict consensus evaluation of these trees established a highly pectinate topology, which delimited clades within the tribe that correspond to several previously considered generic groups. Aztekium and Geohintonia, which manifest ribs in their stem morphology were shown to represent an early divergence in the tribe, forming a sister group to remaining members of the tribe. Clades containing other genera having ribbed stems also are basal to those that develop tubercles. The most derived clade forms a distinct group of typically small stemmed species with tubercular stem morphology. Within Mammillaria, species formerly placed in the genus Cochemiea and members of the Series Ancistracanthae formed a well-supported, sister clade to the remaining members of Mammillaria. Length variation of the intron in two members of Mammillaria series Stylothelae was also observed.

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Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora.

by John M. Coulter

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U. S. Department of Agriculture
Division of Botany
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE U. S. NATIONAL HERBARIUM
Vol. III--No. 2
Issued June 10, 1894

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LOPHOPHORA, gen. nov.

Depressed-globose, proliferous and cespitose, tuberculate-ribbed,
unarmed plants: tubercles at first conical and bearing at summit
a flower-bearing areola with a dense tuft or short pencil of
compact erect hairs, when mature becoming broad and rounded (with
the remnant of the penicellate tuft as a persistent pulvillus in
a small central depression) and coalescing into broad convex
vertical ribs: spine bearing areolae obsolete: flowers borne at
the summit of nascent tubercles: ovary naked (that is free from
scales, but often downy): fruit and seed unknown.

These forms have been variously referred to Anhalonium and
Echinocactus, but seem to deserve generic distinction. They
differ from Anhalonium in the entire suppression of the upper
highly differentiated portion of the tubercle, in the broad and
rounded development of the lower portion, and in the coalescence
of the enlarged tubercles into broad vertical ribs. In fact, in
young specimens, the plant appears almost smooth, with shallow
furrows radiating from the depressed apex. The genus differs
from Echinocactus in the suppression of the spine-bearing
areolae, and the naked ovary. In the examination of developing
tubercles the relation to Anhalonium is evident. In the latter
genus the young tubercle bears on the summit of its pedicel-like
lower portion the tufted flower-bearing areola the modified upper
portion of the tubercle at that time appearing as a bract beneath
the flower. In Lophophora there is the same condition of things,
except that the bract-like upper portion is wanting. From this
point of view it would appear that the differences between
Lophophora and Echinocactus are intensified by the fact that the
flower-bearing areola in the former genus is to be regarded as
really lateral on a tubercle the upper part of which has
disappeared. This genus occurs abundantly in southeastern Texas,
extending southward into Mexico. Mrs. A. B. Nickels reports that
the Indians use the plants in manufacturing an intoxicating
drink, also for "breaking fevers," and that the tops cut off and
dried are called "mescal buttons."

1. Lophophora williamsii (Lem).
Echinocactus williamsii Lem. Allg. Gart. Zeit. xiii. 385 (1845).
Anhalonium williamsii Lem. in Forst Handb. Cact. i. 233 (1846).

Hemispherical, from a very thick root, often densely proliferous,
transversely lined below by the remains of withered tubercles:
ribs usually 8 (in young specimens often 6), very broad,
gradually merging above into the distinct nascent tubercles which
are crowned with somewhat delicate pencillate tufts, which
become rather inconspicuous pulvilli on the ribs: flowers small,
whitish to rose: stigmas 4. (Ill. Bot. Mag. t. 4296) - Type
unknown.

Along the Lower Rio Grande, Texas, and extending southward into
San Luis Potosi and southern Mexico.

Specimens examined: Texas (Mrs. Nickels of 1892): San Luis
Potosi (Eschanzier of 1891): also growing in Mo. Bot. Gard. 1893.

2. Lophophora williamsii lewinii (Hennings).
Anhalonium lewinii Hennings, Gartenflora, 410 (1888).

A much more robust form, with more numerous (usually 13) and
hence narrower and more sinuous ribs, and much more prominent
tufts. (Ill. Monats. Kakteenkunde, October, 1891) - Type unknown.

Along both sides of the Lower Rio Grande.

Specimens examined: Texas (Wm. Lloyd of 1890, mouth of the
Pecos; Mrs. Nickels of 1892, 1893): Mexico (specimen collected
across the Rio Grande, near Laredo, in 1894): also growing in
Mo. Bot. Gard., 1893.

The extreme specific and varietal forms seem worthy of specific
distinction, but abundant growing material in Mo. Bot. Gard.
showed such complete intergradation that a specific line of
separation was found to be impossible. The varietal form is
said to be an important one in the ceremonial rites of the
Indians.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.

These forms are evidently Mexican in origin, and the specimens seen
are all from the Rio Grande region. They have crossed that river
below the "Great Bend," and probably belong to lower-lying, more
eastern Mexican provinces than do the species of Anhalonium.
L. williamsii is reported from southern Mexico, but so little is
known of the distribution of these plants that their eastern
Mexican range is conjectural.

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The above text is based on scanned pages from the Contributions from the United States National Herbarium Vol. III. The scans are included below and are courtesy of the Botanicus Digital Library, Missouri Botanical Garden.

High-resolution copies of the scans can be found in the files section of the Lophophora Google group.

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The first illustration of peyote appeared in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1847 (plate 4296).

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20. Astrophytum

Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Sp. Nov. 3. 1839.

[Greek asteros, star, in reference to the star-shaped stem cross section of the type species, and phyton, plant]

Allan D. Zimmerman & Bruce D. Parfitt

Plants stem succulents, unbranched [to several branched from base], mostly low and deep-seated in substrate [taller in Mexican species]. Roots diffuse. Stem unsegmented, dark green or gray-green, hemispheric or depressed-spheric [to spheric or short cylindric], (2.5-)6-15(-60)[-100] × 6-10(-20) cm, speckled [or entirely hidden] by numerous tufts of dense, whitish, multicellular hairs less than 0.5 mm; ribs [4-]8-10, crests uninterrupted, straight [to sinuous and/or helically curving around stem], broad and nearly flat or rounded [sharp or keeled]; areoles distinct, [2-]6-9[-20] mm apart along ribs, circular; areolar glands absent; cortex and pith hard, not mucilaginous. Spines absent [1-25 per areole in some Mexican species]. Flowers diurnal, near stem apex, at adaxial edge of areoles, funnelform, 4.5-5.4[-8] × 3.8-5.2[-6] cm; inner tepals yellow, proximally red [all yellow], 25 × 6-10[-12] mm, margins entire; ovary sparsely to densely scaly, axils spineless long hairy with arachnoid trichomes, distal scales spine-tipped; stigma lobes [8-]10-12, yellow [pale yellowish], 4 mm. Fruits indehiscent or splitting irregularly, green or pinkish to red, ovoid to spheric, 15-20 × 12 mm, initially fleshy, drying immediately after ripening, sparsely to densely scaly with spine-tipped scales; axils of scales long woolly, spineless; floral remnant persistent. Seeds dark brown to blackish, appearing hollow or bowl-shaped from strongly expanded, inrolled rim around sunken hilum, 2-3 mm in greatest dimension, nearly smooth; testa cells very slightly convex. x = 11.

Species 4-5 (1 in the flora): sw United States, Mexico.

Astrophytum is most often recognized as a distinct genus. Chloroplast DNA evidence (C. A. Butterworth et al. 2002), however, confirms that it is among the closest relatives of Echinocactus. Unlike Echinocactus, the stem surfaces of Astrophytum species are speckled by numerous tiny white tufts of minute, matted hairs in addition to the regularly spaced woolly areoles.

1. Astrophytum asterias (Zuccarini) Lemaire, Cactées. 50. 1868.

Star-peyote, star cactus, sea-urchin cactus

Echinocactus asterias Zuccarini, Abh. Math.-Phys. Cl. Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss. 4(2): 13. 1845

Plants flat-topped and usually flush with soil surface, or at most, above-ground portion low, dome-shaped. Stems shiny, sparsely speckled by bright white extra-areolar hair tufts 0.5-1 mm diam.; ribs usually 8, straight, very low, nearly flat or rounded; areoles 3-5 mm diam., with yellow or gray wool. Flowers opening widely, externally long woolly; inner tepals lanceolate, acuminate. 2n = 22.

Flowering Mar-May and sporadically after summer rainfall. Grasslands, shrublands, Tamaulipan thorn scrub, gravelly slopes and deep soil of flats; of conservation concern; 20-100 m; Tex.; Mexico (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas).

The vernacular name of Astrophytum asterias, star-peyote, reflects its superficial similarity to peyote, Lophophora williamsii, which has very soft, uniformly pale blue-green stems quite unlike the hard, speckled, almost shiny, green stem surface in A. asterias. Astrophytum asterias is extremely rare and localized north of Mexico, presently known only from Starr County, Texas.

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The Flora of North America web site.

32. Lophophora

J. M. Coulter, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 3: 131. 1894.

Peyote [Greek lophos, crest, and phoreus, a bearer, in reference to tufts of hairs in areoles]

Allan D. Zimmerman & Bruce D. Parfitt

Plants erect, commonly unbranched, becoming many branched and moundlike in old age, deep-seated in substrate. Roots taproots. Stems unsegmented, usually gray-green or blue-green to dark green [yellow-green in L. diffusa of Mexico], usually flat-topped and cryptic in soil surface, sometimes protruding above it with recessed apex, ribbed or weakly tuberculate, 2-7.5 × (4-)5-12 cm, softly fleshy, soft skinned, dull, glabrous; ribs 5, 8, or 13 (rarely 21), low, broadly rounded, straight, vertical or less often helically curved around stem; areoles 3-15+ mm apart along ribs or at apices of low, humplike tubercles, circular, copiously hairy, hairs usually in compact, erect tufts to 7-10 mm; areolar glands absent; cortex and pith not mucilaginous. Spines absent. Flowers diurnal, deeply nestled in copious areolar hairs at stem apex, arising from adaxial edges of areoles, campanulate, 1-3 × (1-)1.5-2.5 cm; outer tepals whitish to greenish pink, midrib greenish, margins entire or minutely fringed or ciliate distally; inner tepals usually white to pink [rarely yellowish white or magenta to reddish violet, at least in Coahuila, Mexico], 8-14(-22) × (1-)2.5-5 mm, margins ciliate or entire; ovary smooth, scales, hairs, and spines absent; stigma lobes (3-)4-8, white or pinkish, 1-3 mm. Fruits indehiscent, white to pinkish [to purple], clavate to nearly cylindric, 11-25 × (2-)4-5 mm, weakly succulent, quickly drying and contracting after ripening, upon drying becoming translucent and brownish white or whitish, spines and scales absent; pulp colorless; floral remnant weakly persistent or tardily deciduous. Seeds black, somewhat pyriform, cylindric, or obovoid, 1-1.5 × 1-1.2 mm, not glossy, with large, flat hilum; testa cells strongly convex. x = 11.

Species 2 (1 in the flora): arid regions, sw United States, Mexico.

1. Lophophora williamsii (Lemaire ex Salm-Dyck) J. M. Coulter, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 3: 131. 1894.

Mescal buttons, divine cactus

Echinocactus williamsii Lemaire ex Salm-Dyck, Allg. Gartenzeitung 13: 385. 1845; Anhalonium williamsii (Lemaire ex Salm-Dyck) Lemaire

Plants 0-50-branched, nearly flush with soil surface. Roots fleshy, broadly carrot-shaped, 6-12 cm. Stems flat or domelike with deeply depressed center; ribs to 25 mm broad. Flowers: outer tepals narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, apex acute, mucronate; inner tepals elliptic, margins white to greenish pink, midstripes darker, apex mucronate or attenuate; ovary 3-4.5 mm; styles white, 5-14 mm. 2n = 22.

Flowering Mar-May(-Sep). Chihuahuan desert scrub, Tamaulipan thorn scrub, usually on or near limestone hills; 100-1500[-1900] m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas).

Long used for religious and medicinal purposes by native peoples, Lophophora williamsii is famous for its psychoactive alkaloids, primarily mescaline, which are concentrated in the small, photosynthetic, above-ground portion of the stem. Experienced peyoteros harvest only the top few millimeters of the stem, leaving the deeply recessed apical meristem, thus allowing regeneration. The plants live for many decades and grow very slowly. Anhalonium, a later name for Ariocarpus, has been applied to species of Lophophora, and was widely used in older pharmaceutical literature.

Fruits abruptly ripen up to one year (rarely longer) after flowering.

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The Flora of North America web site.

31. Ariocarpus

Scheidweiler, Bull. Acad. Roy. Sci. Bruxelles. 5: 491, figs. 1-5. 1838.

[The genus Aria and Greek karpos, fruit, referring to the Aria-like fruit]

Allan D. Zimmerman & Bruce D. Parfitt

Neogomesia Castañeda; Roseocactus A. Berger

Plants erect, unbranched [or branched], deep-seated in the substrate [or somewhat subterranean for whole seasons]. Roots taproots. Stem unsegmented, gray-green (yellow-green or purplish with age or stress), above-ground portion flat, concave, or weakly hemispheric, usually flush with soil surface and cryptic, strongly tuberculate, 0-2(-10) × [3-]5-10(-15) cm, hard, rigid, tough skinned [thin skinned in A. agavoides of Mexico]; tubercles arranged in rosettes or mosaics, ± triangular, 8-20[-60] × [3-]11-25 mm, hard, exposed faces of tubercles strongly differentiated from sides [except in some Mexican species], prominently fissured [wrinkled, roughened, or nearly smooth]; areoles elongate [circular and axillary, circular and subapical, or 2-parted], forming a wide woolly groove on each tubercle; areolar glands absent; cortex and pith not mucilaginous, "mucilage" restricted to elongate cavities. Spines absent [sporadic and rudimentary in some Mexican taxa]. Flowers diurnal, borne in axils of tubercles near stem apex, broadly funnelform to almost salverform, 1.5-5 × 1.5-5 cm; outer tepals brownish or greenish with pink tinge, 12-35 × 5-9 mm, margins entire; inner tepals pink or magenta [white or yellow], 13-34 × 4-10 mm, margins entire; ovary smooth (scales, hairs, and spines absent); stigma lobes 5-10, white, 1.2-5 mm. Fruits indehiscent (very rarely explosively dehiscent), white or cream to pale greenish [reddish], spheric to clavate or cylindric, proximally or almost completely buried in copious wool of stem apex, 10-25 × 5-10 mm, initially fleshy, drying and collapsing a few days after ripening, scales and spines absent; pulp white to pale greenish; floral remnant apparently persistent. Seeds black, spheric to obovoid, 1.2-1.6(-2.5) mm, minutely tuberculate, shiny; testa cells strongly convex (conspicuous with lens). x = 11.

Species 6 (1 in the flora): arid regions, sw United States, Mexico.

Ariocarpus species mostly grow in broken rock substrate and closely mimic it. Some Mexican species display additional adaptations, e.g., A. kotschoubeyanus (K. Schumann) K. Schumann withdraws into seasonally inundated, fine lacustrine soil and can be completely buried between growing seasons.

SELECTED REFERENCES Anderson, E. F. 1965. A taxonomic revision of Ariocarpus. Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 37: 39-49. Anderson, E. F. and W. A. Fitz Maurice. 1997. Ariocarpus revisited. Haseltonia 5: 1-20.

1. Ariocarpus fissuratus (Engelmann) K. Schumann in H. G. A. Engler and K. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 106[III,6a]: 195. 1894.

Living-rock cactus, star cactus, chaute, chautle

Mammillaria fissuratus Engelmann, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 3: 270. 1856 (as Mamillaria)

Varieties 1-3 (1 in the flora): Texas, Mexico.

1a. Ariocarpus fissuratus (Engelmann) K. Schumann var. fissuratus

Plants protruding above ground 0-2(-10) cm. Stems: tubercles forming coarse mosaic, closely packed, exposed faces of tubercles deltoid to hemispheric, deeply fissured on either side of central areolar groove, coarsely rugose, often sharply angled apically; areoles to 3 mm wide, sometimes confined to middle of tubercle faces instead of extending to tips. Flowers 2.5-5 cm diam., 2 times wider than long when fully expanded; inner tepals 21-30 × 5.5-7.5(-10) mm.

Flowering Sep-Nov. Chihuahuan desert scrub, low, rocky hills of limestone chips; 500-1500 m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango).

The stems of Ariocarpus fissuratus are normally flush with the soil surface and resemble limestone chips in shape, color, and texture, rendering the plants extremely cryptic. The species is often found growing with Agave lechuguilla and species of Leucophyllum, and Parthenium.

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The Flora of North America web site.