Autor: Lemaire
• ETYMOLOGY
“impenetrable, tangled cactus”, because of the countless tangled stems of the genus.
• DESCRIPTION
A genus of epiphytic or lithophytic plants with long crawling or hanging cylindrical stems, possessing aerial roots. Spines short and aciculate.
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, more or less zygomorphic, lasting for several days, pink to scarlet red, with a hairy resceptacle, pollinated by hummingbirds. Fruits rather small, spherical, juicy. Seeds shiny, dark brown.
• HABITAT
The genus Aporocactus grows in open woodlands consisting of oaks (Quercus sp.), epiphytic on trees, in the mountains of central and southern Mexico, in the hollows of branches in humus pockets, also sometimes epilithic in the cracks of rocks, from 200 to 2700 m in altitude.
• DISTRIBUTION
Mexico (Hidalgo, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Veracruz).
Currently 2 recognised species:
– Aporocactus flagelliformis * (L.) Lem. 1860
– Aporocactus martianus* (Zucc.) Britton & Rose 1920
References: “TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE” – ISBN 978-84-617-3723-9 (Vol. 1)