Gymnocalycium pflanzii subsp. dorisiae H. Amerhauser

In search for Friedrich Ritter`s Gymnocalycium armatum H. Amerhauser and his companions visited the valley of Rio Paichu. Coming from San Antonio, Ritter visited the same scenery on the 2nd of December, 1962. On his way back out of the valley he found a beautiful new Gymnocalycium which he published as G. armatum later on.

Extracts from H. Amerhauser's report (published in Gymnocalycium, 04/11/1998):

Amerhauser: " About 20 km past Iscayachi on the Cordillera de Sama near San Antonio, a narrow path branched off to lead down into the valley. The path, while neatly passable at the high plateau, soon started to lower itself in many convolutions into the valley of Rio Paichu. We were lycky that no vehicles came in our way, since there was no chance in avoiding anything on this narrow and steep route. Although passing a genuine paradise of cacti, we had to concentrate on our track. On the one side a steep slope and on the other side an even more upright abyss necessitated our full concentration. There were a large number of marvelous Oreocereus trolli (Kupper) Backeberg, Parodien as big as human heads, Lobivia ferox Britton & Rose with broomy thornes which had a length of up to 15 cm and a lot of Tephrocacti, standing on the hill as well as on the valley. Near Sana Cruze we reached the bottom of Rio Paichu. Before the final stop - the evening grew closer and we had to prepare for spending the night in our vehic les - we saw an especially beautiful Gymnocalycium with thickly spines, located in the steep slopes. We couldn't examine it further because of the growing darkness. "

photos by H. Amerhauser
a first look into the valley	G. pflanzii subsp. dorisiae	the Paichu-canyon	a professional of survival

Amerhauser: " The day after that, when we continued our way in the river bed for a couple of kilometers, we found a large amount of this beautiful figure on the eastern slopes of the river. These impressive plants were up to 15 cm in diameter and some old plants were up to 20 cm in height. Their appearance was similar to C. saglionis (Cels) Britton & Rose subsp. tilcarense (Backeberg) H. Till & W. Till, which I saw in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, Prov. Jujuy, Argentina, four years ago. The only apparent difference I could spot through the thickly thornes were the light-rose flowers which resembled C. pflanzii (Vaupel) Werdermann in their shape. These plants mostly grow on weatherworn slate on less steep slopes of the canyon. "

photos by H. Amerhauser
G. pflanzii subsp. dorisiae	the Paichu-canyon in the evening	Weingartia spec. from the canyon