{"id":589,"date":"2025-11-20T12:38:41","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/?p=589"},"modified":"2025-11-20T12:38:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:38:41","slug":"three-mile-high-punotia-not-your-typical-cactus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/three-mile-high-punotia-not-your-typical-cactus\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-mile High Punotia, Not Your Typical Cactus"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photo above:\u00a0Punotia lagopus in cultivation, Eigenes Werk)<\/sup><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n
Ivor Crook, MD, is a member of the Tephrocactus Study Group and has studied Tephrocactus and Austrocylindropuntia extensively.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
This material was originally published in the Tephrocactus<\/span><\/span> Study Group Journal in December 2012, by Ivor; he writes as follows.<\/span><\/div>\n

The Details<\/h3>\n
\n

As we climbed above 4100 metres above sea level (asl) we noted some of the clumps of\u00a0 hairy cacti began to look slightly different. Amongst the small clumps of Austrocylindropuntia\u00a0 floccosa and the occasional Echinopsis maximilliana we found our first specimens of Punotia lagopus on a flat grazed patch of land. Further on, at around 4300m altitude we found larger specimens, some up to almost 2 metres in diameter, in very dark and wet peaty ground. At this site some of the plants were almost growing into the river. One plant had been uprooted and turned over. Looking at the underside we could confirm these large clumps of stems are all one plant with branches spreading radially from one central, rooted stem.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The following morning, after spending the night in Macusani, we drove back through the pass stopping at the highest point, just over 4686 metres asl.. The plants here were covered with a light sprinkling of snow which had fallen in the night. By mid morning it had melted completely. Cacti here were growing on East facing gentle slopes of short grass. Only A floccosa and P lagopus grew here making this, I believe, the highest location recorded for cacti.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wikipedia reports that the word lagopus is derived from Greek and means “hare (rabbit) foot.” And the fluffy white cladodes do resemble a rabbit’s foot. Punotia lagopus (formerly, Austrocylindropuntia lagopus) can be found near La Paz, Bolivia, at altitudes from 4,000 m (2.4 mi) to 4,700 m (2.9 mi).<\/span><\/p>\n

The cacti make intricately branched shrubs, and the cladodes are densely covered with hairs up to 2 or more cm-long. The hairs may protect from cold and UV radiation at that altitude. The low shape may allow the plants to absorb heat from the ground and avoid the wind. The dome shape may be caused, in part, by wind pruning, which “removes” plant parts that stand out against a silhouette.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional Reading:\u00a0Cactus Explorer 16–High Altitude Cacti<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Punotia <\/a>
Punotia lagopus next to (perhaps seasonal) stream, Ivor Crook <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Punotia <\/a>
Punotia lagopus on Andean Plain, Ivor Crook <\/div> <\/div>
\"Punotia <\/a>
Punotia lagopus with pollinators and flowers, Ivor Crook <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Punotia <\/a>
Punotia lagopus next to (perhaps seasona?) stream, Ivor Crook <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Punotia <\/a>
Punotia lagopus cladodes, Stuart <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo above:\u00a0Punotia lagopus in cultivation, Eigenes Werk) Introduction Ivor Crook, MD, is a member of the Tephrocactus Study Group and has studied Tephrocactus and Austrocylindropuntia extensively. \u00a0 This material was originally published in the Tephrocactus Study Group Journal in December 2012, by Ivor; he writes as follows. The Details As we climbed above 4100 metres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[46,28,22],"class_list":["post-589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opuntiads","tag-cholla","tag-south-america","tag-unusual"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Austrocylindropuntia_lagopus-Eigenes-Werk.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5981,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589\/revisions\/5981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opuntiads.com\/oblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}