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| The genera of Cactaceae |
~ Parodia
The plants condensed-cactoid; low and very compacted in their entirety. The plants’ appearance dominated neither by crowded areolar structures nor by tubercles covering the areoles. The stems spiny; globose, or shortly cylindric; 6–15 cm in diameter; apically depressed; neither cephaliate nor pseudocephaliate. The plants nearly always unbranched; erect; usually solitary; to 0.08–0.75(–1) m high. The stems not segmented; strongly ribbed and grooved. The ribs 18–40; longitudinal; sharp. The grooves wide to deep and narrow. The plants conspicuously tuberculate to not conspicuously tuberculate. The tubercles connected by the ribs; borne in longitudinal series. The areoles initially associated with tubercles, or not tubercle-associated (subsequently); almost confluent, or closely approximating; borne in longitudinal series; simple; with spines. The spines paired to clustered; 2–8; 0.5–2 cm long; with radials and centrals differentiated, or showing little or no difference between radials and centrals (in U. pectinifera). Central spines when determinable, 1, or 4; conspicuously forming a cross, or not forming a cross. Radial spines 2–4. The spines straight to curved (erect to spreading or pectinate). The mature stems leafless.
Flowering during the day. The flowers more or less, terminal to lateral (subapical); funnelform; sessile; small to medium-sized; 1.5–2.7 cm long; regular. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium, or scarcely produced beyond the ovary (?). The pericarpel having areoles with dense wool and a few bristles. The hypanthial tube ornamented like the pericarpel; not naked (with woolly areoles); spineless. The perianth yellow. The perianth segments relatively short, broad.
The mature fruit 0.8–2.5 cm long; globose, or ellipsoidal (cylindrical), or pyriform; yellow, or red; not naked (with wool and bristles distally but naked below); without persistent floral remains; non-fleshy when mature (thin walled and dry at maturity). The seeds reddish brown to black; "cap-shaped"; not encased in bony arils; with hilum and micropyle conjunct. The testa shiny; tuberculate, or smooth, without ornamentation. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Brazil.
Classification. 3 species. Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Cereeae.
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’.