Autor: R. Kiesling & J. Piltz
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus native of Yavi, department of Jujuy province in Argentina, near the Bolivian border.
• DESCRIPTION
Monotypic genus of dwarf plants (3 cm. in diam.), geophytic, solitary (caespitose in cultivation when grafted), usually subterranean with a long napiform root, the aerial part of the stem depressed with the apex umbilicate. Ribs numerous (up to 40), hardly visible, tubercles low. Areoles and spines tiny, pectinate.
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, apical, bell-shaped, white to more or less intense pink, pollinated by insects. Fruits turbinate, sunk into the plant, basally dehiscent, remains of the perianth deciduous. Seeds few (4-25), dark brown to black, finely tuberculate, with a prominent hilum.
• HABITAT
The monotypic genus Yavia grows in northern Argentina and southern Bolivia, in desert areas, usually in full sun, sometimes in the shade, at ground level on rocky slopes with almost no vegetation, on very friable sedimentary or metamorphic rocks, between 3600 and 3800 m in altitude, sometimes together with Aylostera pygmaea. It is a very mimetic plant that takes the colour of the surrounding rocks. In Argentina, the analyzed soil presented a pH of 6.5.
• DISTRIBUTION
Argentina (Jujuy), Bolivia (Santa Cruz).
Currently only one recognised species:
– Yavia cryptocarpa* R.Kiesling & J.Piltz 2001
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3692-8 (Vol. 2)