Ariocarpus are the living rocks of the Chihuahuan Desert: slow, sculptural, and deeply collectible.
10 for sale · flat $12 US shipping · 4 sold
Each Ariocarpus grows from a thick tuberous taproot and presses flat against the limestone, taking years to reach the size you see here. The whole genus is CITES Appendix I, so everything we offer is artificially propagated nursery stock, never wild collected.
Our Ariocarpus care guide and the species pages in the Ariocarpus encyclopedia cover the limestone substrate, sparse watering, and habitat behind every plant in this collection.
Looking for the furrowed cultivar? See every Ariocarpus Godzilla for sale, green and variegated, on its own page. Every variegated cactus for sale across the shop is gathered on one page as well.
10 plants for sale
Species for sale now: A. agavoides A. bravoanus A. bravoanus subsp. hintonii A. fissuratus A. fissuratus subsp. lloydii A. kotschoubeyanus
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At rarecactus.com every Ariocarpus we sell is seed grown and has grown on in our own greenhouse in Orange County, California. Most were sown here; the variegated Godzilla specimens came to us as seed grown plants from a Japanese nursery, and each listing says which.
The entry plants are young Ariocarpus agavoides about 1.5 to 2 inches across. The specimens run from a 3.5 cm variegated Godzilla to a 10 cm Ariocarpus bravoanus that flowers every autumn, and each listing states the size of the plant it sells.
One-of-a-kind listings show the exact plant you receive; batch listings, such as the agavoides, show a representative plant from the same batch.
Every Ariocarpus ships bare-root and completely dry, the standard and safest way to move a plant whose body is mostly taproot. Pot it on arrival in a deep pot of fast-draining mineral mix and hold off watering for about two weeks while the roots settle.
Our plants sit in full sun in about 95 per cent mineral grit with limestone chip, watered only through the warm growing season and kept bone dry from November to March. That is the Ariocarpus care guide in one sentence; the care panel on the Ariocarpus encyclopedia hub lays it out row by row.
A bare-root Ariocarpus travels wrapped dry in paper inside a rigid box, with the taproot padded, because the body is too firm to bruise and the root is what needs protecting. Shipping is a flat $12 within the United States, the only country we ship to, and orders leave within 1 to 3 business days. All sales are final. If a plant arrives dead, write within a couple of days of delivery with your order number and clear photos of the plant and the packaging, and we will work toward a fair resolution.
Ariocarpus fissuratus is the living rock itself, and the Godzilla cultivar is its heavily fissured form; the variegated Godzilla plants carry cream and coral sectors through the crown. Every Godzilla we have, green and variegated, is on the Ariocarpus Godzilla page, and every variegated plant in the shop on the variegated cactus page.
The hintonii plant is a decade-old crown with the flattened, weathered tubercles that only age produces. Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus is the dwarf of the genus, offered here as a two-headed variegated elephantidens.
Sold plants stay listed so you can see what has passed through.
The whole genus sits on CITES Appendix I. That treaty governs international trade, so a plant shipped within the United States needs no permit, and artificially propagated stock like ours is the only lawful way to own one. We never sell wild-collected plants.
The entry plants are about 1.5 to 2 inches across and the mature specimens 3 to 10 cm. Ariocarpus are slow, so a 10 cm plant represents well over a decade of growing, and the price follows the age.
Pot an Ariocarpus in a deep pot of pumice, lava, granite grit and a little limestone, with the crown level with the surface. Give no water for about two weeks, then soak and let the mix dry completely before the next watering.
No permit is needed within the United States. CITES Appendix I covers international trade, and our plants are artificially propagated nursery stock shipped domestically.
Ariocarpus agavoides, the entry plant here, can flower in as few as five to eight years from seed; fissuratus, bravoanus and kotschoubeyanus take eight to ten years or more. Our larger specimens are past that point and bloom every autumn, the hintonii from August to October and the bravoanus from September to November.
Godzilla is a cultivar of Ariocarpus fissuratus selected for deeply furrowed, heavily fissured tubercles; the body shape and the care are the same as the species. Variegated Godzilla adds cream and coral sectors where the tissue carries less chlorophyll.
