| | The genera of Cactaceae |
~ Lobivia, cf. Hunt, 1967
Including Spinicalycium Fric (nom. inval.)
The plants condensed-cactoid; low and very compacted in their entirety. The stems spiny; globose to ovoid, or shortly cylindric; apically depressed. The plants erect; solitary. The stems not segmented; ribbed and grooved. The ribs 16–20; longitudinal; acute. The plants fairly conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles; distant; borne in longitudinal series; 1–2 cm. apart, usually yellowish brown, simple; with spines. The spines clustered; 7–20; 1.5–2 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated, or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals (the centrals shorter in A. ferarii). Central spines 1–4. Radial spines 6–9. The spines flexible; straight to curved; terete (acicular or awl-like). The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers aggregated; more or less terminal; funnelform, or campanulate; sessile; medium-sized; 3–5.5 cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium; not naked; with scales. The hypanthial tube not naked; with scales. The scales of the hypanthial tube spine-tipped. The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube woolly, not naked. The perianth white and pink. The perianth segments relatively short, broad; pointed. The androecium including staminodes.
The mature fruit about 10 cm long; globose; with persistent scales, not naked; hard, non-fleshy when mature; dehiscent; dehiscing vertically by one slit, or dehiscing vertically by more than one slit. The seeds with a small sunken hilum, brown to black; ovoid; not encased in bony arils. The testa papillate. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Argentina.
Classification. 3 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Trichocereeae.
Images. • Acanthocalycium spiniflorum (as A. violaceum): © Zoya Akulova (2007).
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’.
