Species library › Ariocarpus › Ariocarpus trigonus
Succulents Well documented

Ariocarpus trigonus

A slow, spineless 'living rock' cactus with long, keeled, triangular tubercles and pale yellow flowers in autumn, from the limestone hills of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León. It needs strong sun, great heat, a very mineral soil, and a completely dry winter.

Ariocarpus trigonus
Photo: Tubifex, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Limestone hills and flats in Tamaulipan thornscrub and Chihuahuan desert scrub, often partly shaded by shrubs or grasses, with its body set low in the soil.

Recorded at 200–1239 m, median 648 m, from 840 records.

MexicoTamaulipasNuevo LeónSan Luis Potosí

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Ariocarpus trigonus? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.