| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Snake cactus, Golden Cereus, etc. ~ Echinocereus, cf. Hunt (1967)
Including Bergerocereus Fric & Kreuz. (orth. var.)
The plants slender cerioid. The stems spiny; elongate cylindric. The plants freely branched (near ground level); more or less erect (or ascending); shrubby; clustering (low and spreading, freely suckering, forming colonies); to 0.6 m high (remaining under 1m). The stems columnar to not columnar. The main stem not remaining dominant. The branches cylindrical; to 20–60 cm long; 3–6 cm in diameter. The stems not segmented; inconspicuously low- ribbed and grooved. The ribs 20–25; longitudinal. The plants more or less conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate (the ribs somewhat warty, the areoles less than 1 cm apart). The tubercles connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles. The components of adjacent areoles so extensively covering the mature plant body as to obscure any ribs or furrows. The areoles borne in longitudinal series (along the ribs); simple; without glochids; with spines. The spines clustered; 10–50; 1–5 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated (the centrals longer and thicker than the radials, the main one bent backwards). Central spines 1–4. Radial spines 9–46. The spines stiff; straight; acicular, terete; golden- or yellowish-brown. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers terminal; one per areole; rotate (to fully expanded); sessile; small to medium-sized; 3–5.5 cm long; regular. The receptacle shortly but conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium. The pericarpel felted and spiny like the tube. The hypanthial tube not naked; with scales (these minute). The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube not naked. The hypanthial tube with axillary felt and with spines (these abundant). The perianth exposed during bud development; yellow; limb relatively large. The perianth segments relatively short, broad.
The mature fruit 2.5–6 cm long; globose; not naked; very spiny; non-fleshy when mature. The seeds pyriform (obovoid); compressed to flattened; not encased in bony arils. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. California, Mexico.
Classification. 1 species (B. emoryi). Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Pachycereeae.
Images. • Bergerocactus emoryi, habit: Britton & Rose (1920). • Bergerocactus emoryi, flower: Britton & Rose (1920).
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’.
