Image Database

The cacti from seed I planted in 1979 were named Parodia taratensis but, when they matured enough to distinguish them one from another, I suspected that they were of a highly variable species or the seed packet contained a mixture. However, I wasn't able to solve this with the literature then available to me. When I started this database I acquired a new set of superb handbooks and it turns out that my plants were incorrectly named in the first place. There is a valid Parodia taratensis species, but it has yellow flowers and it is not the species that I had. What I knew as Parodia taratensis is really Parodia tuberculata that includes two synonyms, each of which perfectly describes one or the other of the plants illustrated here.
My plants, I am confident, were P. yamparaezi (photo CP0714), and P. krasuckiana (photo CP1482). Both of these names were valid when I bought the seed, but both are now listed as synonyms of P. tuberculata. The visible differences between these two plants are evidently not thought to be suficient to justify separate taxonomic status for them. Similarly, my older orange flowered Parodia sucrensis, also an entry in this database, is listed in the P. tuberculata synonymy.
There are usually 3 to 5 flowers at a time, on these Parodias, and blooms are produced over a long period in mid Summer. They are natives of Bolivia and Argentina. Of interest, also, is that the present 66 species of genus Parodia at one time was hundreds of species, most of which not supportable under the ICBN rules. This is what led to chaos and the necessity for a new start under new methods and knowledge with better control of the process of naming new plants. Information on this is scattered throughout this database, but more precise details are very well presented in Anderson 2001.