Melocactus paucispinus

A small, sparsely spined Turk's-cap cactus from the sandstone and quartzite rock outcrops of the Chapada Diamantina in Bahia, Brazil. It wants full sun, warm days with clearly cooler nights, and a dry winter; like all Melocactus it stops growing in body once its woolly cephalium forms and it dislikes cold.

At home, aim for

Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry

Night A clear drop at nightTargets in Plantistry

Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry

Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry

Expects a seasonal restGrows on rock (lithophyte)

Where it grows wild

Grows in rock crevices and pockets of coarse quartz sand on open outcrops in campo rupestre and caatinga transition, with little shade from surrounding shrubs.

Records span 0–1500 m with a median near 1085 m; the low-elevation values look like coordinate or elevation errors, and the plant is essentially an upland species of roughly 800–1300 m.

Brazil Northeast

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

Start free Sign in

More Melocactus

Melocactus curvispinus Melocactus macracanthos Melocactus azureus Melocactus bahiensis Melocactus bellavistensis Melocactus caroli-linnaei Melocactus ernestii Melocactus levitestatus Melocactus matanzanus Melocactus violaceus Melocactus conoideus Melocactus intortus All 53 →

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 4.0 licence, unmodified.