Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Hierba del guanaco

(Maihuenia poeppigii)

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Description

Maihuenia poepigii, commonly known in Chile as maihuén or hierba del guanaco, is a succulent cactus shrub native to Chile and Argentina. M. poepigii is remarkably tolerant to moisture and cold temperatures. The specific epithet poepigii commemorates Eduard Pöppig, a 19th-century German naturalist who explored South America. This is a cactus species forming dense cushions often consisting of hundreds of individual segments. The plant's specific physical characteristics are listed below: Leaves: Small and succulent. Flowers: Showy, large, satiny and lemon-yellow in color. It flowers in late spring. Maihuenia is a genus of cactus (family Cactaceae) and the sole genus of the subfamily Maihuenioideae, which is the smallest subfamily of the Cactaceae. The genus comprises two cushion-forming, mucilaginous species. They are found at high elevation habitats of Andean Argentina and Chile. Its name is the Latinized version of maihuén, a local Chilean name for these cacti.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Caryophyllales
Family:Cactaceae
Genus:Maihuenia
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