Copiapoa laui

Copiapoa laui
Date: 2002 November 25
Location: coastal Chile, near Esmeralda

This tiny Copiapoa was only described in 1980. It remained undiscovered for so long because the plants form near-invisible mats not far from the coast, near Esmeralda in Chile.

The heads in the photograph are around 1-2cm in diameter (you can see part of my boot). The plants have large tuberous roots beneath the clumps.

I have twice seen the plants in habitat, and on neither occasion were any flowers present, but here is a cultivated specimen flowering in my greenhouse.