| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Including Azureocereus Akers & Johnson, Castellanosia Cardenas, Gymnocereus Rauh & Backeb.
The plants cerioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems spiny (sometimes on the main stems only); neither cephaliate nor pseudocephaliate. The plants not producing aerial roots; branched; erect; tree-like; with well formed trunks (often), or not developing conspicuous trunks; solitary; to 10 m high. The stems columnar, or not columnar. The branches differing in form from the main stem to resembling the main stem. The main stem remaining dominant; more or less cylindrical. The branches cylindrical. The stems not segmented; usually many- ribbed and grooved. The ribs longitudinal. The plants not conspicuously tuberculate. The areoles not tubercle-associated; large, borne in longitudinal series (along the ribs); simple. The flowering areoles differing in form from the non-flowering ones (the vegetative ones heavily spined, the reproductive ones less so or spineless). The areoles (at least some) with spines. The spines when present, clustered; 5–50; 0.5–8 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated, or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals. Central spines 0–6; conspicuously forming a cross, or not forming a cross. Radial spines 0–16. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering at night. The flowers lateral; one per areole; tubular to funnelform; sessile; large; 8–12 cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium. The pericarpel ornamented like the tube. The hypanthial tube not naked; with scales (these broad, acute). The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube more or less naked. The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth white, or red, or pink, or purple (‘white to purplish red’); limb relatively large. The perianth segments rather short, spreading. Stamens adnate to the perianth (inserted in the throat and tube).
The mature fruit where recorded, 2–7 cm long; where described, globose to ovoid; green, or yellow; not naked (covered with deciduous scales); indehiscent (?). The seeds "diverse"!; not encased in bony arils; with hilum and micropyle conjunct. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Bolivia, Peru, Chile.
Classification. About 11 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Browningieae.
Cf. Hunt, 1967.
Images. • Browningia hertlingiana: © Zoya Akulova (2010). • Browningia candelaris: 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’.
