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| The genera of Cactaceae |
Hedgehog cactus.
Including Morangaya G.D.Rowley, Wilcoxia Britton & Rose
The plants dwarf, soft and fleshy, cerioid (sometimes - Wilcoxia - with tuberous roots), or condensed-cactoid; low and very compacted in their entirety, or not ‘low and very compacted’. The plants’ appearance dominated neither by crowded areolar structures nor by tubercles covering the areoles. The stems very spiny; discoid (E. knippelianus), or globose (rarely), or shortly cylindric to elongate cylindric; neither cephaliate nor pseudocephaliate. The plants terrestrial and self supporting, or scrambling, or climbing; branched to unbranched (grouped or laxly branching or clustering from the base); prostrate, or erect; solitary to clustering (or colony forming); to 0.1–0.6 m high (when unsupported, but sometimes clambering to 4 m). The stems columnar, or not columnar (mostly). The shoots formed deeply within the stems, and emerging by breaking through the epidemis (often), or formed conventionally (externally). The branches resembling the main stem. The stems not segmented; ribbed and grooved. The ribs 4–26; longitudinal; usually well formed. The grooves wide, or deep and narrow. The plants conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles connected by the ribs; usually borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles (borne at their tips); closely approximating to distant. The components of adjacent areoles so extensively covering the mature plant body as to obscure any ribs or furrows, or not obscuring details of the plant body. The areoles usually borne in longitudinal series; simple. The flowering areoles resembling the non-flowering ones. The areoles usually woolly; without glochids; with spines (usually), or without spines (0–4 in C. knippelianus). The spines usually clustered; (1–)7–45(–80); 0.1–13 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated (often), or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals (and centrals sometimes lacking). Central spines (0–)1–15; conspicuously forming a cross (rarely), or not forming a cross. Radial spines (0–)4–25(–40). The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers solitary, or aggregated; lateral; one per areole; long funnelform to campanulate; sessile; medium-sized to large; 2–15 cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium. The pericarpel ornamented like the tube. The hypanthial tube short to elongate; not naked; with scales (these short). The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube not naked (with axillary wool). The hypanthial tube with spines (bristly). The perianth brightly coloured, red, or pink, or purple, or yellow (rarely); limb relatively large. The perianth segments elongate, relatively narrow to relatively short, broad; blunt, or pointed, or apiculate. Stamens adnate to the perianth (inserted in the tube in a single series). The stigma lobes green.
The mature fruit sizes not recorded ...; of assorted colours; not naked; spiny (but the spines easily detachable); fleshy; a fleshy berry, often edible, indehiscent. The seeds 0.8–2 mm long; with truncate hilum, black; pyriform; not encased in bony arils. The testa strongly verrucose. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Western North America, Mexico.
Classification. To 70 species (or more). Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Pachycereeae.
Cf. Hunt, 1967.
Images. • Echinocereus laui: © Zoya Akulova (2017). • Echinocereus rubispinus: © Zoya Akulova (2012). • Echinocereus pentalophus (as Cereus procumbens): Bot. Mag. 117 (1891). • Echinocereus viridiflorus (as Cereus): Bot. Mag. 125 (1899). • E. coccineus, E. viridiflorus, E. viridiflorus subsp. chloranthus, E. maritimus: Britton & Rose (1922). • Echinocereus berlandieri (as blankii), E. grandis, E. reichenbachii subsp. fitchii, E. pentalophus: Britton & Rose (1922). • Echinocereus sciurius, E. fendleri and E. X-roetteri (as lloydii), with Echinopsis cinnabarina (as Lobivia) and Rebutia minuscula: Britton & Rose (1922). • Echinocereus engelmannii, with E. laterita, E. maximiliana and E. petlandii as Lobivia: Britton & Rose (1922). • E. leucanthus (Salm-Dyck.) K. Schum. (as Cereus),, Bot. Reg. xxvi, 13 (1840).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2018 onwards. The genera of Cactaceae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th November 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
