Dyckia reitzii, understand it.

Dyckia reitzii rubra adult plant.
We shall follow this plant  while it gets deep red wine colored.
This plant is one of the most spectacular Dyckias I know.
Years ago we did not even believed it existed. It grows only in a very limited  area on the border of a huge and spectacular canyon in between Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. It grows high in there and it is really used to frosts and some snow. Deep frosts uses to burs its foliage and it dries ant turns into straw it is burned by fire. It grows amid grasses. These grasses protect it from severe deep frosts but once the grasses are also turned into straw the fire gets there. The plant recovers from the fast grass fires only if the are already mature individuals. This condition makes it rare, an extremely rare plant that need help. Individuals that grows within the canyon gorge are  a bit more safer that those o the very top of the borders in the surrounded prairies.  Another oddity here: this plant adores humidity!!It is most of the times  deep soaked during the nights and mornings due to the heavy mist formed in the gorge of the canyon.

 

Above and below we see two young stages of a Dyckia reitzii rubra.

This is a young Dyckia reitzii rubra .
This plant will pass by quite a transformation as it ages.
We re not used to these plants and no one showed them as I am doing now. 
We will follow this process here.

Bellow you can see three different stages of  Dyckia reitzii rubra.
the adult one id on the right side and it is going to get real dark red wine soon as it gets
 used and exposed to a strong direct light.

 

This plant above is a seedling, Notice the spines are not black yet but
 they will get darker and darker as the plant ages.

This is Dyckia reitzii type and this one here is part of the very same plants 
Pe. Raulino reitzii used for describing the species.
It was given to me by A Raulino´s close friend and medical doctor
 and botanist Dr. Jones Caldas (Dyckia jonesiana)
Dyckia reitzii is known as Dyckia of the clouds as it is only found in 
altitudes superior to 1.300 meters.
It occurs in several places in the South, all in very high altitude and places used to get frosts ans some snowing. It is found close to the border of SantaCatarina and Rio Grande do Sul  the Brazilian southernmost states. It is suspected to exist in Paraná a state north of Santa Catarina in one single place and also it is said to have being found in Rio do Janeiro State up
 to 2.600 meters high in Serra das Agulhas Negras.
The rubra form is found up north Rio Grande do Sul in a point where it meets Santa Catarina.

The silvery borders lines ar visible in both plants the type one and the rubra one.
It is more or less visible depending on the age of the plant.
Young plants do not show these lines and this is interesting and weird too.
The rubra one below is an old plant and shows these lines clearly.
the plant below , in my opinion is among the top most beautiful Dyckias of all.
This one I show is pale ´cause i wanted it to recover and get used to my cultivation. so I avoided to much stron direct Sun. From now on it is going to get redder and redder and we will follow this process.Notice the super silvery underleaves.

 

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