| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Including Epiphyllopsis Backeb. & F.M. Knuth, Hariota DC., Pseudozygocactus Backeb., Rhipsalidopsis Britton & Rose; excluding campanulate
The plants cerioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems not spiny. The plants epiphytic, or lithophytic; producing aerial roots; usually much branched; with cladodes, or without cladodes. The cladodes when present, with midribs, or without midribs. The plants erect to pendent (initially erect, but later spreading or arching, or becoming pendent); shrubby (with determinate growth); solitary; to 0.3–1 m high (when erect). The branches 3 to 5- angled, or flattened, or cylindrical, or clavate, or globose. The stems with segments arising singly or in clusters from composite areoles at the tips of older segments, segmented (the segments not exceeding 5 cm long); annually articulating. The plants not conspicuously tuberculate. The areoles not tubercle-associated; distant and confluent. The confluent areoles at the ends of terminal, flattened stem segments and lateral. The areoles borne along the margins of the flattened branches and terminal; when not composite simple (mostly small). The flowering areoles differing in form from the non-flowering ones (terminal on the segments and composite). The areoles woolly, or not woolly; with bristles, or without bristles; without spines (soft bristles only). The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers terminal (from composite apical areoles); ambiguously one per areole, or more than one per areole; campanulate; sessile; small to medium-sized; 2–7 cm long; regular. The receptacle scarcely produced beyond the ovary, or not produced beyond the ovary (e.g., in Pseudozygocactus); naked. The pericarpel naked, angled, winged or round in transverse section. The hypanthial tube if present, naked. The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube more or less naked (cf. the pericarpel). The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or of ‘tepals’. The perianth segments relatively short, broad; blunt, or pointed, or apiculate.
The mature fruit globose, or turbinate; white, or green, or yellow (-ish), or red; naked (glabrous); without spines; without persistent floral remains; fleshy; indehiscent (?). The seeds 1 mm long; brown, or black; not encased in bony arils; with hilum and micropyle fused; with a mucilage sheath. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
General anatomy. Cortical bundles present (e.g., as small, circular groups in H. salicornioides), or absent (?).
Natural Distribution. Southeastern Brazil.
Classification. 4 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Rhipsalideae.
Cf. Hunt (1967).
Images. • Hatiora salicornioides: © Zoya Akulova (2010). • Hatiora gaertneri (as Schlumbergera): Britton & Rose (1923). • Hatiora gaertneri (as Schlumbergera): Britton & Rose (1923). • Hatiora salicornioides, with Rhipsalis teres (as cribrata and R. heteroclada): Britton & Rose (1923).
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’.
