About Ariocarpus.org

Ariocarpus.org is a reference site for a single genus of cactus. It exists to get the names right and to lay out what is actually known about each species, its varieties and forms, and the cultivated plants collectors grow.

What this site covers

The seven accepted species of Ariocarpus, the varieties and forms recorded within each, how to tell them apart, where they grow, and the crests, variegates and cultivars that show up in cultivation. It is a guide and an atlas, not a shop. If you want to read about a plant, you are in the right place.

How we check the facts

Every load-bearing claim here is checked against two authorities. For accepted names and synonymy we follow Plants of the World Online (POWO), run by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. For descriptions, habitat and field records we lean on Living Rocks of Mexico. When the two disagree on what a plant should be called, POWO wins. Anything we cannot stand behind, we leave out.

Our companion shop

Ariocarpus.org is the reference half of a pair. The other half is rarecactus.com, where seed-grown plants, raised in cultivation rather than collected from the wild, are sold. This site stays on the side of identification and natural history; if you want to grow one, that link is where to go.