Blossfeldia liliputana KK 2059

Description

Type: Seed grown · Size: about 2.5 cm (0.98 in) across, three-headed cluster · Field data: KK 2059, Torotoro Pass, Rio Grande

Blossfeldia liliputana KK 2059 is for sale here as a single, one-of-a-kind specimen: a seed grown cluster of the world’s smallest cactus, three heads fused at the base and each carrying the spotted, spineless surface the species is known for. The plant pictured, with its Karel Kníže collection tag still standing in the pot, is the exact specimen you will receive, raised in our own greenhouse.

What makes Blossfeldia liliputana KK 2059 different

A single head of Blossfeldia liliputana tops out around 10 to 12 mm, flattened and button-like, pressed flush against the rock it grows on. It carries no ribs, no tubercles and no spines at all, a combination close to unique in the cactus family, and its areoles hold only fine white wool arranged in a spiral. Underneath that plain surface the plant is a genuine physiological outlier: it carries roughly 0.6 stomata per square millimeter, the lowest density measured in any land plant, and it can lose up to 80 percent of its water weight and sit dormant for a year or more without dying. That is closer to how a moss or lichen survives drought than how most cacti manage it. Kew records the accepted name at Blossfeldia liliputana, and our own Blossfeldia liliputana specimen page and Blossfeldia genus hub cover the species in full.

In habitat the species wedges into shaded crevices on vertical rock faces across the Andes of northwest Argentina and southern Bolivia, anchored by a small tuberous root rather than any real leaf or spine structure. Left alone in a crevice it usually stays solitary, but it can also build into small clustered colonies the way this plant has, three heads sharing one base rather than pushing up as a single dome.

Rarely offered seed grown

Most Blossfeldia liliputana in the trade is grafted onto Pereskiopsis or Echinopsis rootstock, because the species is notoriously slow and a seed grown plant, even with a strong root system, can take years just to reach a normal watering schedule. Grafted plants grow fast and often clump heavily, but they lose the flat, tight body the species carries in the wild. At rarecactus.com we grow our Blossfeldia liliputana KK 2059 from seed in our own greenhouse, never grafted, which is the harder and slower route and the reason a plant like this does not come up for sale often.

How we grow it

We keep this Blossfeldia liliputana in an extremely free-draining, fine mineral mix, in a small pot that dries quickly, and give it shade with steady airflow rather than the hard direct sun a typical globular cactus wants. Water sparingly through the warm growing months and only once the mix is fully dry, then withhold completely through a cool, dry winter above roughly 5°C. Seedlings of this species can take two to five years before they tolerate a normal watering routine, and considerably longer before they flower, so a three-headed cluster like this one already represents real patience on our part.

When your plant arrives

Your Blossfeldia liliputana KK 2059 ships well rooted and packed dry for transit. Pot it up into a sharply draining mineral mix in a shallow, quick-drying container, settle it somewhere bright but shaded from harsh direct sun, and withhold water for about 14 days while it acclimates before the first cautious soak. After that, keep it on the sparing, fully-dry-between-waterings routine described above.

Field data and provenance

KK 2059 is a field number of the Czech collector Karel Kníže, recorded against Torotoro Pass on the Rio Grande, the same locality Mesa Garden lists for the seed this plant was grown from. We have not yet indexed this collector in our own Field Number Database, so we are naming the source plainly rather than overstating it: the seed came from Mesa Garden under this exact field number, and the plant was raised entirely in our greenhouse from there. Blossfeldia sits on CITES Appendix II through the family-wide Cactaceae listing, and artificially propagated, seed grown stock like this is the lawful way to own it.

This is a one-of-a-kind plant. The three-headed cluster in the photographs, about 2.5 cm across, is the exact specimen that ships.