Purchased a couple weeks ago from a garden center in Southern Colorado. I was looking through various cacti on Reddit to find any leads and came across another Parodia, and after some googling I think I found it? Hoping for confirmation, and anything you can tell me about this little guy!
DaveW wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:00 am
I agree with Spence. I don't think it is P. leninghausii but one of the other former Eriocactus (Notocactus) like E. warasii or E. claviceps
Hi everyone! Thanks for your help so far. Especially Spence since they've been helping me with the repotting process in a different thread.
While repotting it today I took a couple pictures of it's roots, maybe these new pictures could help i.d. it a little better? I hadn't watered it in about 2 weeks since that's about how long I've been going between watering and because I wanted it to be dry so I could remove as much of the old soil as possible.
It looks good, but I think you need to wait and see how it develops to confirm the ID. The species that have been proposed are all closely related, and have very similar spines. All were formerly placed in Eriocactus, then Notocactus, and then Parodia, to make things more confusing.
P. leninghausii differs from the others by having about 30 ribs and a more columnar shape. This one has 14 ribs, though the shape is similar to leninghausii.
DaveW mentioned Eriocactus claviceps (syn, Parodia schumanniana), that one has 21 to 48 ribs, fewer in immature specimens. I does seem like a possibility, though it usually has a more spheroidal shape when young, becoming columnar with age.
P. magnifica (syns, E. or N. magnificus) and P. warasii (it's warasii in any genus) are also more ball-shaped when young, with 11 to 15 ribs. The most apparent difference between them is that magnifica has a waxy "bloom" on its skin which makes it look blue - but this develops only in good light.
This cactus is very young, and there's no way to know what kind of light it was grown in - they like full sun, but will tolerate light shade. Give it a year or two in good growing conditions and it should become clearer which of these species it belongs to.
, I guess as well E. warasii
