Dyckia distachia rubra

Dyckia distachia rubra
Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul east border
This plant is a reofitic one, lives on rocks close to running waters.

Dyckia distachia has a very peculiar behavior, odd, weird and a only one among all Dyckias.
The plant lifts up itself as it gets older! The plant is got out from the substrate by its own efforts.
Its elder leaves get downward and in doing so the plant is lifted up and as the plant has a very short trunk is seems the plants is in the air but...
If you look for a trunk among the old death leaves you will see just a stem as thick as a match.
This thin stem is the stoloniferous appendix link from the mother plant and from it the roots come out.
This behavior comes from the fact the plant tries to suspend itself from upleved waters.
This behavior avoids days on end of being submerged by flood waters.
This plant is one of the rarest plant on Earth!
It was seen by the first time now, in this century.
Comes from a very cold area. It is a plant from a cloudy high plato.
A rocky jewel plant that produces yellow to faint orange flowers.
Also, its spines are tiny smaller than the dot of the letter "i".