| | The genera of Cactaceae |
~ ?Corryocactus, cf.Hunt (1967)
Excluding Yungasocereus
The plants succulent; cerioid; not ‘low and very compacted’. The stems spiny; elongate cylindric; to 8 cm in diameter. The plants not producing aerial roots; much branched; erect; tree-like; with well formed trunks; to 2–4 m high. The stems columnar. The main stem more or less cylindrical (the low trunk to 15 cm. in diameter). The branches cylindrical; to 8 cm in diameter. The stems distantly segmented; not annually articulating; ribbed and grooved. The ribs 4–6; longitudinal. The grooves wide. The plants not conspicuously tuberculate, or conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate (i.e., the ribs notched, or thickened around the areoles). The tubercles if recognised as such, connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles associated with tubercles to not tubercle-associated; fairly distant; borne in longitudinal series; simple. The flowering areoles resembling the non-flowering ones. The areoles with greyish-brown felt at first; without glochids; with spines. The spines clustered; 4–6 (? - "usually about 5"); 0.2–1.5 cm long; showing little or no difference between radials and centrals (but often with one longer than the rest and pointed downwards); all very thin in juveniles; greyish. The mature stems leafless.
Flowering at night and during the day. The flowers lateral (borne in series along distal parts of the stems); one per areole; narrowly funnelform (slightly curving upwards, not opening wide); sessile; medium-sized to large; 4.5–5 cm long; regular to somewhat irregular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium. The pericarpel with long scales, short hairs and a few short brown bristles. The hypanthial tube ornamented like the pericarpel; not naked; with scales (these long). The axils of the scales of the hypanthial tube not naked (with short brown bristles). The hypanthial tube spineless. The perianth exposed during bud development; white, or pink (?); limb relatively large to short or none.
The mature fruit truncate- globose; red, or pink; not naked (tuberculate); without spines; with persistent floral remains; somewhat fleshy to non-fleshy when mature; dehiscent; dehiscing vertically by one slit, or dehiscing vertically by more than one slit (lengthwise, to reveal reddish-orange pulp). The seeds not encased in bony arils. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Bolivia, Peru. North America.
Classification. 1–2 species (S. corroanus). Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Trichocereeae.
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’.