| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Barrel cactus.
Including Bisnaga Orcutt, Brittonia C.A. Armstr. (nom. inval.)
The plants condensed-cactoid; low and very compacted in their entirety. The plants’ appearance dominated by crowded interlacing areolar structures obscuring any tubercles, ribs or furrows, or dominated neither by crowded areolar structures nor by tubercles covering the areoles. The plants not vegetatively reduced to tubercles. The stems spiny; discoid, or globose, or barrel-shaped, or shortly cylindric; apically depressed, or not apically depressed; neither cephaliate nor pseudocephaliate. The plants branched, or unbranched, or offsetting; erect; solitary, or clustering; to (0.1–)0.3–4 m high. The stems not segmented; ribbed and grooved. The ribs 12–40 (few to many); longitudinal; often large and prominent. The plants fairly conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles to not tubercle-associated; closely approximating, or 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 borne in longitudinal series; simple; associated with extra-floral nectaries; with spines. The spines clustered; 4–35; 0.5–15 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated, or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals. Central spines when differentiated, 1–10(–12) (often 4); conspicuously forming a cross (rarely), or not forming a cross. Radial spines (0–)5–25 (ocasionally represented by bristles). The spines usually including some hooked members, or never hooked; variable, usually strong straight, or curved, or hooked; flattened, or terete. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day (?). The flowers more or less terminal; one per areole; shortly funnelform, or funnelform to campanulate; sessile; small to large; 2–10 cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium. The pericarpel with naked areoles. The hypanthial tube not naked; with scales (these numerous, very short, obtuse or acute, scarious or ciliate). The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube more or less naked. The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth yellow, or red, or pink, or brown. The perianth segments elongate, relatively narrow, or relatively short, broad; blunt, or pointed, or apiculate. Stamens separated from the perianth by a conspicuous ring of hairs; not exserted.
The mature fruit 1.5–6 cm long; globose, or ovoid, or ellipsoidal; fleshy to non-fleshy when mature; thick walled, dehiscent; dehiscing vertically by one slit, or dehiscing vertically by more than one slit, or dehiscing via basal pores, or irregularly dehiscent ("via irregular slits or basal pores"). The seeds 1.4–2.4 mm long; brown to black; obliquely ovoid, or pyriform; flattened to concave; not encased in bony arils. The testa shiny; minutely pitted, or reticulately or striately patterned. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Dry regions of southwestern U.S. and northern to central Mexico.
Classification. 30 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Cacteae.
Cf. Hunt, 1967.
Images. • Ferocactus echidnae var. echidnae: © Zoya Akulova (2014). • Ferocactus glaucescens: © Zoya Akulova (2017). • Ferocactus latispinus: © Zoya Akulova (2010). • Ferocactus recurvus: © Zoya Akulova (2009). • Ferocactus robustus: © Zoya Akulova (2011). • Ferocactus robustus: © Zoya Akulova (2014). • Ferocactus diguetii, F. townsendianus, F. wislizeni: Britton & Rose (1922). • Ferocactus wislizeni: Britton & Rose (1922). • Ferocactus emoryi subsp. rectispinus, F. viridescens: Britton & Rose (1922). • Ferocactus hamatacanthus, F. latispinus and Sclerocactus whipplei: Britton & Rose (1922). • Ferocactus diguetii and F. pilosus (as pringlei): 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’.
