A mat of white-haired Austrocylindropuntia floccosa stems grows among tufts of golden-brown grass

Austrocylindropuntia floccosa

Name: Austrocylindropuntia floccosa
Address: PE

Native to the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, this perennial cactus forms low, spreading mats of short cylindrical stems covered in long white hairs. The hairs are barbed rather than smooth. Its flowers are yellow or orange, followed by rounded fruits partly hidden among the stems. In Peru’s Kosñipata Valley, it grows at about 11,500 to 13,100 feet in the high-elevation puna grasslands. Photographed in Peru.

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Austrocylindropuntia floccosa forms a dense colony of woolly upright cactus stems on a grassy hillside

Austrocylindropuntia floccosa forms scattered clumps of woolly stems among rocks on an open slope

Austrocylindropuntia floccosa forms woolly cactus clumps between rocks on a grassy slope

Austrocylindropuntia floccosa forms low white woolly mounds beside a tuft of mountain grass