| | The genera of Cactaceae |
Including Peireskiopsis Vaupel (orth. var.)
The plants more or less conventionally dicotyledonous and leafy to 'cactoid'; ambiguously opuntioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems spiny. The plants terrestrial and self supporting, or scrambling, or climbing; irregularly branched (with numerous, slender twigs); shrubby, or tree-like; with well formed trunks (sometimes these well defined), or not developing conspicuous trunks; to 1–5 m high. The branches differing in form from the main stem to resembling the main stem (trunks often spinier); cylindrical. The stems not segmented; not ribbed and grooved. The plants not conspicuously tuberculate. The areoles not tubercle-associated; distant; spirally disposed, or scattered on the surfaces; round, simple; hairy; woolly, or not woolly; with glochids (usually), or without glochids; usually with spines. The spines solitary to clustered; 1–20 (1–5 on the stems, more on the trunks); showing little or no difference between radials and centrals; often very stout, acicular; straight. The mature stems with well developed leaves (these elliptic, obovate or orbicular). Leaves of mature stems small to medium-sized (2–8 cm long); usually persistent, rather fleshy; flat, flat.
Flowering during the day. The flowers usually lateral (on the previous season’s stems), or terminal; one per areole; rotate (Opuntia-like); sessile; medium-sized to very large; 2–10(–16) cm long; regular. The receptacle not produced beyond the ovary; not naked; with scales; with spines, or spineless. The pericarpel bearing leaves, scales subtending areoles with glochids and sometimes spines. The perianth yellow, or red, or pink. The perianth segments spreading; relatively short, broad; blunt, or apiculate. Gynoecium inferior. Placentation parietal. The funicles circinate (?).
The mature fruit 1.5–13 cm long; ellipsoidal (cylindrical), or clavate, or pyriform; orange, or red; naked, or not naked; spiny (?), or with glochids (often), or without spines; clavate, often with glochids, few-seeded, fleshy to non-fleshy when mature; indehiscent. The seeds 4–5 mm long; arillate, yellowish- white; conspicuously hairy, or felted (covered with matted hairs); broadly ovoid; encased in their bony arils. Cotyledons fleshy, foliaceous.
Natural Distribution. Mexico south into Guatemala. Central America.
Classification. 8 species. Subfamily Opuntioideae. Tribe Cylindropuntieae.
Cf. Hunt (1967).
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’.
