Blossfeldia


Blossfeldia is a genus of cactus containing only one species, Blossfeldia liliputiana, native to South America in northwestern Argentina and southern Bolivia. It grows at 1,200–3,500 m altitude in the Andes, typically growing in rock crevices, and often close to waterfalls.
It is of note as the smallest cactus species in the world, with a mature size of around 10–12 mm diameter. The flowers are white or rarely pink, 6–15 mm long and 5–7 mm diameter.
The genus Blossfeldia has been divided into many separate species; however most morphological evidence supports that the genus is monotypic, and contains only Blossfeldia liliputiana.
The species is named after the fictional country of Lilliput, where all of the inhabitants are minute.

Taxonomy

The genus and species were first described in 1937 by Erich Werdermann after being discovered in northern Argentina by Harry Blossfeld and Oreste Marsoner. The genus name honours Blossfeld. Blossfeldia liliputiana has several features making it unique among cacti, including a very small number of stomata, the absence of a thickened cuticle, and hairy seeds with an aril. It is placed in the subfamily Cactoideae, and traditionally in the tribe Notocacteae. However, molecular phylogenetic studies have repeatedly shown that it is sister to the remaining members of the subfamily, and well removed from other genera placed in the Notocacteae:
Recognizing the position of Blossfeldia, Nyffeler and Eggli in their 2010 classification of Cactaceae placed it in a separate tribe, Blossfeldieae, within Cactoideae. Earlier, Blossfeldia considered as a distinct genus of tribe Notocacteae or even had been placed in an entirely separate subfamily, Blossfeldioideae.