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| The genera of Cactaceae |
~ Trichocereus, cf. Hunt (1967)
Including Floresia Krainz & F. Ritter ex Backeb. (nom. inval.), Haageocactus Backeb. (nom. inval.), Neobinghamia Backeb., Peruvocereus Akers
The plants succulent; cerioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems spiny; shortly cylindric, or elongate cylindric; pseudocephaliate, or neither cephaliate nor pseudocephaliate. The plants terrestrial and self supporting, or scrambling; branched and offsetting (from low down); prostrate (or creeping or sprawling), or erect (or ascending); shrubby to tree-like; solitary, or clustering; to 0.7–3 m high (when erect). The stems columnar, or not columnar. The main stem remaining dominant, or not remaining dominant; more or less cylindrical. The branches cylindrical. The stems not segmented; ribbed and grooved. The ribs 11–26; longitudinal. The grooves wide to deep and narrow. The plants more or less conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles when present, connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles to not tubercle-associated; closely approximating. 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 borne in longitudinal series; simple. The flowering areoles differing in form from the non-flowering ones to resembling the non-flowering ones (the flowering ones sometimes with more bristles). The areoles without glochids; with spines. The spines clustered; (8–)20–40(–60); with radials and centrals differentiated, or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals (and centrals sometimes lacking). Central spines when differentiated, 1–20. Radial spines 7–40. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering at night to during the day. The flowers lateral (but toward the stem tips); one per areole; more or less funnelform (opening to flat-rotate, narrower than in Trichocereus, only slightly hairy); sessile; medium-sized to large; 5–11 cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium (elongate). The pericarpel with few to many hairs and numerous scales. The hypanthial tube stout, ornamented like the pericarpel; not naked; with scales. The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube slightly to densely hairy, more or less naked. The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth white, or red to pink. The perianth segments relatively short, broad; blunt. Stamens adnate to the perianth; not grouped (in a single series).
The mature fruit 2–8 cm long; globose, or ovoid; not naked (with a few scales and hairs); without spines; with persistent floral remains; fleshy; indehiscent (?). The seeds black; pyriform; not encased in bony arils. The testa shiny, or dull; irregularly pitted. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Peru.
Classification. About 20 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Trichocereeae.
Images. • Habit: Espostoa melanostele (as Binghamia) and Haageocereus limensis (as Binghamia acrantha): Britton & Rose (1920). • Haageocereus limensis (as Binghamia acrantha): Britton & Rose (1922).
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’.
