Ariocarpus fissuratus
Location in Habitat
Found in the Chihuahua desert, down through Durango, Zacatecas, and up into the edge of Texas along the Rio Grande river. This is one of the few Ariocarpus species you can find in the US, and throughout its range it’s been heavily impacted by poaching and illegal collection.
The cactus is well adapted for its habitat, with the highly textured leaves fading to a brownish gray over time, closely matching the surrounding rocky scrub.
Slow growing, in habitat it often takes decades for them to reach a mature size of about 6″ across. In cultivation, many plants get significantly larger, but the harsher conditions of their natural habitat fuel less growth.
Ariocarpus fissuratus – Non-locale specific
I have several of these, as I love the texture and the fluff. I made the mistake of ordering seedlings first, which I’ll post pictures of below. They are so, so, so slow to grow that if you want one of a decent size, be prepared to pay for it. What you’re paying for is time, and lots of it!
April 2022
When I first received this Ariocarpus fissuratus, it had been very hard grown. The brown coloration you see and the shriveled look of the leaves are potentially indicators that this was a poached plant. In my case, this came from a seller also located in San Diego that is well known, reputable, and I know often hard-grows his plants.
If he wasn’t such a well known seller and someone with strong ties in the plant community, I would have been asking more questions about where this plant came from. Looking this hard grown and similar to their appearance in habitat makes the species one you should pay close attention to where the plant is sourced from.
Two and a half years later, I can’t remember if he said this was seed grown or an import, but it has a big original tap root that looked nice and fibrous in the way that typically points towards being grown in cultivation, not in habitat.
May 2022
After some time inside to acclimate after shipping, I moved the cactus out to the greenhouse.
It’s in 75% pumice and 25% soil at this point, keeping it very inorganic to mimic the harsh conditions they typically grow in. Even so, the occasional water and less harsh conditions I kept it in resulted in slow recovery from how the previous grower had kept it.
Another indicator (although less reliable/sure) is that as it recovered, the cactus tubercules became green pretty consistently. The outermost leaves didn’t stay brown-gray, indicating they didn’t get the ‘burn’ or scarring that habitat plants tend to.
July, 2022
September, 2022
October, 2022
March 2023
September, 2023
I kept my Ariocarpus almost entirely dry all through the winter of 2022 to 2023, and some plants handled this with more drama than others. The Ariocarpus fissuratus flattened out and clearly sunkn into the soil a bit, which was interesting.
In March, I’d repotted many of my Ariocarpus into these snazzy hexagon pots, and the white dust from the pumice covered many of them. By the end of summer, it had all washed off.
October 2023
December 2023
Each year as this plant enters winter dormancy, you can see that it becomes more gray in color, a little flat, and very wooly up top. I use a flat paintbrush (just a little cheap one from a set you can get on Amazon) to brush the fuzz and check for pests.
March 2024
October 2024
The cactus got pretty spoiled this summer, with regular water and fertilizer, and it shows in the thickness of each tubercule as you look along the side. Even with plentiful water and fertilizer, it’s still an incredibly slow growing species. Getting spoiled this year may have been too much, so next year I’ll have to try less water for the cactus to keep its growth nice and compact.
September 2024
Slightly out of order, but this year my biggest Ariocarpus fissuratus decided to bloom near the end of September, rather than closer to the end of October. It’s still early in the month, so I may get more blooms yet. It was the only one to bloom, so no seeds yet – maybe in another year or two, “the twins” (the seedlings I’ll show below) will be large enough to start blooming.
May 2021
July 2021
I didn’t realize until I was going back through for photos of these over the years that I realized how few photos I took of these. As in…none! They stayed in that square pot, sharing space and topped by decomposed granite, until early this year (2024).
They were sold as 2 year old seedlings, and as you can see by the label, type locality of Brewster County, Texas.
These came from a seller named Ethical Desert, located out of Colorado, and as you can imagine, his plants are ethically sourced.
April 2024
At 5 years old, the little Ariocarpus fissuratus seedlings are finally getting some size to them – enough to really start recognizing them as their speices!
October, 2024
Interestingly, one is developing fuzz and growing a bit faster than the other. They are, clearly, in the same size pot, and in the same soil mix, and were repotted at the same time.
Ariocarpus fissuratus var Lloydii
I love a big, thick, chonky plant, and the lloydii form of fissuratus is that in spades.
June 2023
Purchased this one from the SDCSS Summer Show & Sale last year. It’s been a consistent, but slow grower, which is in keeping with being part of the Ariocarpus fissuratus species.
May 2024
The new growth has a reddish tint to it, which I suspect points more to some sun stress and lack of fuzz than to variegation.
October 2024
Clear growth! Look at those chunky tubercules and the texture coming in. I can’t wait to see this one continue to develop.
