Ariocarpus fissuratus Living Rock Cactus (Specimen B)

Description

Type: Seed grown · Size: 4.06 in (10.3 cm) across · One-of-a-kind specimen

Ariocarpus fissuratus, the living rock cactus, is for sale here as a single seed grown plant measuring 4.06 in (10.3 cm) across on the caliper in the last photograph. You will receive the exact plant pictured. At rarecactus.com we grow our Ariocarpus from seed in a mix of mineral grit, and this one has grown into a broad, heavily textured rosette under a thick cap of cream and tan wool.

About this Ariocarpus fissuratus

Look at the surface first. Every tubercle is covered in raised, warty bumps and wandering grooves, rough enough to pass for carved stone, and that is the fissured texture the species is named for. The tubercles are broad and triangular with a keel underneath, and they stack in overlapping tiers, so the plant looks layered when you see it from the side.

Down the centre of each tubercle runs a groove packed with wool. On this plant the wool has spread well past the crown, in pale streaks across the older tubercles.

The side photographs show the base, where the oldest tubercles have dried into a broad, corky collar against the stem. That is normal on a mature living rock. It marks a plant with real years behind it.

The species

The first description came from George Engelmann in 1856, based on plants found near the Rio Grande in southwest Texas. Wild plants grow from the Big Bend region into Coahuila and Chihuahua, pressed flat on limestone hills and so well camouflaged that it is easy to step over one in the field. The accepted record for Ariocarpus fissuratus is held at Kew’s Plants of the World Online, and our Ariocarpus fissuratus specimen page goes through its taxonomy, its habitat and its forms in detail.

In autumn a settled plant pushes pink to magenta flowers straight up out of the woolly crown, each one opening by day for two or three days.

How we grow it

This Ariocarpus fissuratus grows in a wide pot of almost pure mineral grit (pumice, lava and granite with limestone chip), top dressed with the same stone so the neck of the plant stays dry. It gets strong light, a thorough soak only after the mix has dried right through in the warm months, and no water at all through winter.

Slow growth is the point. Water and fertiliser beyond what the plant needs only swell the body and spoil the compact shape, and wet roots in cold weather are how most living rocks are lost. The Ariocarpus care guide gives the full watering calendar and the substrate recipe.

Choosing this plant

This is a big, well-textured living rock with a heavy crown of wool. The listing is for the exact plant pictured for sale, so what you see in the photographs is what arrives, including the weathered, corky lower tubercles and the dried wool on the older growth that any mature plant carries. It is seed grown, with a strong root system, never grafted and never taken from the wild.

When your plant arrives

We ship it bare-root and dry. When it arrives, pot it into a sharply draining mineral mix in a pot sized to its roots, keep it in bright indirect light, and give it no water for about 14 days while it settles in. Then bring it gradually into brighter light and water on the soak-and-dry cycle through the growing season, keeping it dry and above freezing in winter.

Provenance and legality

Seed grown and cultivated in our greenhouse, never wild collected. Ariocarpus is listed on CITES Appendix I, the strictest tier of international wildlife trade protection, and nursery-raised plants like this one are the lawful and ethical way to own a living rock. We ship to US addresses only. See every species in the genus on the Ariocarpus encyclopedia hub.