Prolific Austrian cactus explorer Walter Rausch (1928-2022) described more than 400 cactus taxa resulting from his explorations of cactus habitats of South America. Many of these have since been synonymized by later taxonomists. Nevertheless, many of his collections, or their progeny, persist in cultivation and provide a fascinating and valuable sampling of these rich cactus floras, especially those of Bolivia and Argentina. The plant offered here is now considered to be merely a yellow-flowered form of the typically red-orange-flowered R. fabrisii. However, we offer it under the varietal name aureiflora, meaning yellow-flowered, that was published at the same time as the species (KuaS 28(3): 52-53 (1977)) to distinguish this beautiful golden-yellow-flowered miniature. The small heads (1-2 cm) are densely covered in fine, bristly spines and clump to form clusters of dozens of heads, resulting in a magnificent show when flowering. We offer divisions of HBG 120104, a plant obtained from John Pilbeam in 2006. This is the clonotype of the variety collected by Rausch, WR 687, collected at 2000 m altitude, between Valle Colorado and Valle Grande, Jujuy, Argentina. Its montane origin makes it tolerant of bright light and frost hardy to the teens °F or lower. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 97 (2), Summer 2025