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Parodia magnifica (F.Ritter) F.H.Brandt

balloon cactus

Climate known Photographs not checked Cactus or succulent

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Parodia magnifica is a species of flowering plant in the family Cactaceae, native to southern Brazil. One of several species called ball cactus, it is also called balloon cactus. It grows to 7–15 cm (3–6 in) tall by 45 cm (18 in) broad, with heavily ribbed, spherical to columnar, spiny and hairy stems, bearing pale yellow flowers in summer. Its natural habitat is cool, dry temperate grassland at elevations of up to 800 m (2,600 ft). More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Parodia magnifica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Parodia

Parodia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cactaceae, native to the eastern slopes of the Andes in northwestern Argentina and southwestern Bolivia and in the lowland pampas regions of northeastern Argentina, southern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, and Uruguay. This genus has about 65 species, many of which have been transferred from Eriocactus, Notocactus and Wigginsia. They range from small globose plants to 1 m (3 ft) tall columnar cacti. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Parodia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family

Cactaceae

Described by

(F.Ritter) F.H.Brandt

Native to

Brazil South

Wild records

5 in range· 3 open

At a glance

Warmest month

29°C

Jan, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

1571mm/yr

12 wet months · peak Jan 163 mm (CHELSA)

Light

17–42DLI

mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)

In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Parodia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January and March to September in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1571 mm a year, wettest January at 163 mm, driest June at 104 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Eriocactus magnificus F.Ritter; Eriocephala magnifica (F.Ritter) Guiggi; Notocactus magnificus (F.Ritter) Krainz; Notocactus magnificus (F.Ritter) Krainz ex N.P.Taylor.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Parodia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (January and March to September in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1125 mm of 1571 mm) takes 8 months, September to March and July. Mean temperature moves 9.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: January and March to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1571 mm a year, wettest January at 163 mm, driest June at 104 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1571 mm a year at the habitat, 1125 mm of it September to March and July. Wettest month January at 163 mm, driest June at 104 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1537 mm to 1720 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 9.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.3 °C, the absolute minimum 5.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.5 °C to 13.8 °C), warmest day 29.3 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 3 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale

Figures by month

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	29 / 26–29	28 / 26–29	27 / 26–28	24 / 24–27	21 / 21–23	19 / 18–22	18 / 18–22	20 / 19–25	21 / 20–26	24 / 22–28	26 / 23–28	29 / 25–29
Night °C	21 / 20–22	21 / 20–22	21 / 19–22	19 / 16–20	16 / 13–17	14 / 11–15	14 / 11–14	14 / 12–15	16 / 13–17	17 / 15–19	19 / 17–20	21 / 19–21
Rain mm	163 / 156–207	160 / 151–162	125 / 123–135	115 / 107–157	123 / 120–137	104 / 97–136	124 / 71–147	104 / 70–108	147 / 131–170	149 / 135–176	133 / 129–144	124 / 119–162
DLI	40 / 38–41	37 / 37–37	33 / 32–34	26 / 25–29	20 / 20–23	17 / 16–21	19 / 18–23	23 / 23–28	27 / 27–32	34 / 34–36	40 / 39–40	42 / 40–43
RH %	63 / 60–64	63 / 61–65	61 / 60–63	61 / 59–63	62 / 60–62	62 / 60–63	62 / 58–62	60 / 55–62	61 / 56–63	60 / 58–63	58 / 58–62	60 / 58–63

Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2380:2611 (-29.025, -49.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 3 distinct grid cells holding the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2380:2611 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -29.00_-49.375, lapse-corrected -51 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 6 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.

Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.

NativeBrazil South

Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 5 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 3 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 298 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Parodia magnifica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download