Gymnocalycium megatae

Y. Ito describes three cacti in his book 'Cacti Cultivation & Information' - G. megatae, G. onychacanthum and G. tudae. These plants were collected by A. Friedrich during the Chaco war between 1933 and 1935. A great deal of these plants came to America and Japan at that time. There are barely any differences ascertainable in Yto's descriptions of the three species. Uruguay is marked as the place of finding for G. onychacanthum. Plants of the G. megatae sphere could not yet be found there.

At the Bolivian-Paraguayan border the shape of the Chaco's surface is defined by lineaments of dunes. Here it was that we found a form of G. megatae which barely sprouts and grows huge. We barely found any small plants. We found a pretty beautiful form of G. megatae in the vicinity of the colony Filadelfia/Paraguay. The plants are darkish and have a nearly black-green epidermis. They grow between high grass.

Gymnocalycium megatae
G. megatae habitat VoS 3	Busy cooperator	G. megatae habitat VoS 10	G. friedrichii grows together with G. megatae at this place