| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Including Neocardenasia Backeb.
The plants cerioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems spiny; elongate cylindric; 40 cm in diameter; neither cephaliate nor pseudocephaliate. The plants much branched (from the base, in the absence of a definite trunk); erect; shrubby to tree-like (candelabra-like, sometimes but not always with trunks); with well formed trunks, or not developing conspicuous trunks; solitary; to 10–15 m high. The stems columnar. The main stem more or less cylindrical. The branches cylindrical. The stems segmented, or not segmented; ribbed and grooved. The ribs 4–8; longitudinal. The grooves wide. The plants conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate (depending on interpretation). The tubercles represented by the peglike areoles, should these be interpreted. The tubercles connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles, or not tubercle-associated (depending on interpretation); rather closely approximating; borne in longitudinal series; simple (comprising large, round to elongated, brown-felted, peg-like short-shoots, which continue growing for many years). The flowering areoles differing in form from the non-flowering ones (being spineless). The areoles with spines. The spines clustered; 3–20; 1–25 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated (N. herzogiana), or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals. Central spines in N. herzogiana 3–5. Radial spines 7–10. The spines flexible; straight, or curved. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers lateral; one per areole to more than one per areole (one to few per areole); funnelform; sessile; medium-sized to large; 5–7.5 cm long (3–6 cm in diameter); regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium (stoutly). The pericarpel with scales and subtending conspicuously developed felted areoles and sometimes with bristles. The hypanthial tube ornamented like the pericarpel; not naked; with scales. The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube not naked (with felted areoles and sometimes bristles). The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth exposed during bud development; limb short, spreading or rotate; off- white, or pink; limb relatively large. The perianth segments spreading. Stamens adnate to the perianth (inserted in the upper part of the tube).
The mature fruit 5–7 cm long; globose, or ovoid, or ellipsoidal; yellowish brown, or purple; not naked (with brownish woolly or feltlike areoles); spiny (these short). The seeds with a broad basal hilim, black; globose or sub-globose to ovoid ("globular to oblong"); not encased in bony arils; with hilum and micropyle conjunct; with a mucilage sheath. The testa verrucose and rugose. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Peruvian coastal and Andean Peru and Bolivia.
Classification. 2 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Browningieae.
Cf. Hunt (1967).
Images. • Neoraimondia herzogiana: © Zoya Akulova (2017). • Neoraimondia microstibas: Britton & Rose (1920). • Neoraimondia microstibas: 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’.
