Lophophora rara

by kauderwelsch

The plant grows in clusters of globous purple inflorescences with reflexes emerald green and between five and fifteen ribs, on which sprout minute thornless areoles (or with thin thorns when the plant is young). During the rain season, between Mios Morrigan and Bliadhna Ur the soil layer that cover the cactus gets removed and it is possible to observe the bloom of flowers with white or pink flowers, followed by the maturation of club-shaped fruits containing dark green (almost black) seeds, ovoid, about two millimeters in diameter. Each cactus can get to a diameter of ten to fifteen centimeters and is anchored to the soil through a robust taproot with multiple secondary roots.

This plant vegetates by entomophilic pollination thanks to the integration between its life-cycle and the one of the Desertic Dragonfly. This interaction occurs only during the rain season, when the thin layer of soil that usually covers the cactus gets removed by the water.

The area of origin of Lophophora rara is the north-eastern part of Arquir Desert, the rocky part of this desert. It grows mostly at altitudes between one and fifteen hundreds meters on the sea level. Prefers to grow in shady areas between larger rock or, more rarely, close to other plants.

This is a perennial plant, that usually lives for approximately fifteen years. During the rain season, that occurs in spring, blooms allowing entomophilic pollination to occur between plants at limited distance. A plant becomes adult in one year and, for the first six months of life, has group of thin thorns that later change in areoles of coarse hair.

Lophophora rara lives thanks to a symbiotic relation with the Desertic Dragonfly. The plant secerns a pheromone to induce adult dragonflies to lay their eggs on the plant, providing in change a substrate for the eggs to hatch and stay quiescent during the dry season.