Acanthocalycium spiniflorum
(K. Schumann) Backeberg 1935
– Echinocactus spiniflorum K. Schumann 1903, – Echinopsis spiniflora (K. Schumann) A. Berger 1929 – Echinopsis violacea Werdermann 1931, – Acanthocalycium violaceum(Werdermann) Backeberg 1935
Plants usually solitary, globose to somewhat elongate, depressed apically, to 60 cm (24 in) high, 10-15 cm (3.9-5.9 in) in diameter. Ribs 16-20, acute, somewhat tuberculate, to 1 cm (0.4 in) high. Spines 10-20, straight, needle-like, flexible, yellowish to brown, with dark tips, becoming gray with age. Flowers erect, funnelform to bell shaped, pink to white, to 4 cm (1.6 in) long and in diameter.
– Acanthocalycium variiflorum Backeberg 1966, not validly published
Plants solitary, globose to cylindrical, green, to 12 cm (4.7 in) in diameter. Ribs as many as 18, rounded, swollen at areoles. Areoles oval, whitish. Spines horn colored to brown, usually straight, awl shaped. Central spines 1-4, to 1.5 cm (0.6 in) long. Radial spines 7-9, to 2 cm (0.8 in) long.
Flowers yellow to orange-red to carmine, to 5.5 cm (2.2 in) long and 5 cm (2 in) in diameter. Fruits oval, to 10 mm (0.4 in) long and 8 mm (0.3 in) in diameter.
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus honouring Charles Edwin Bessey (1845-1915), professor of botany at the University of Nebraska (USA). “Neo”,
because the genus Besseya had already been used to designate a Scrophulariaceae in 1903 (see portrait above, public
domain). • DESCRIPTION
A genus of small plants more or less spherical, or subglobose becoming elongated, solitary or caespitose often forming cushions. Tubercles rounded, having a characteristic longitudinal groove, and woolly areoles. Spines finely aciculate to subulate, pubescent.
Flowers diurnal, often self-fertile, subapical, opening widely, outer tepals ciliate, creamy-yellow, greenish-yellow to pinkish, stigmas green or greenish-yellow, usually pollinated by bees. Fruits globose to oboval, fleshy, intense red, the remnants of the dried out perianth eventually falling. Seeds variable in size, roughly globose, foveolate, blackishbrown. • HABITAT
The genus Neobesseya has a very wide geographic distribution area, from northern Mexico up to northern United States, with an significant disjunction in Cuba (N. cubensis), and grows usually in more or less large colonies, at ground level, in full sun on hills, or slightly in the shade of shrubs, on rocky plains with a sparse xerophytic vegetation, on clayey soils (N. abdita), on slates (N. duncanii), ripplemarked sandstones, in gravel, in woody grasslands or dry plains, on desert margins and at the edge of forests, between 400 m and 2700 m in altitude. For example, N. cubensis grows on low hills composed of serpentine, among bushes and grasses, on a stony soil rich in iron and in manganese, in a very well drained soil. • DISTRIBUTION
Cuba (Holguin), Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas), USA (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wyoming).
• ETYMOLOGY
≪ Blueberry cactus≫, referring to the fruits of the genus, very similar to blueberries and edible. • DESCRIPTION
A genus of shrubby to treelike plants, strongly branched, usually wider than high when adult, never exceeding 5 m in height, with stems more or less erect, few angled (5-8), wide ribs, with areoles bearing somewhat similar, subulate, sometimes flattened spines. Cuticle very thick, more or less waxy.
Flowers diurnal, rather small, remaining open during night, sometimes self-fertile, grouped, with a short floral tube, rotate, white to greenish-white or creamy yellow, fragrant, pollinated by bees and hummingbirds during day (Caнothorax lucifer, Cynanthus latirostris, and probably Archilochus colubris, Colibri thalassinus, Eugenes fulgens, Hylocharis leucotis, Lampornis demendae, Selasphorus platycercus, S. rufus and S. sasin), as well as bats [Anoura geoffroyi, Choeronycteris mexicana, Glossophaga soricina, Leptonycteris curasoae, L. nivalis and L. sanbornii) and moths (Stenaspilates apapinaria) during night. Fruits small, spheroid much like blueberries, reddish, waxy purple to purplish-violet, edible, flavor somewhat reminiscent of kiwi fruit, indehiscent (drying when ripe). Seeds tiny black brown, matt, with light relief, ruminate. Dispersal of seeds ornithophilous (ornithochory), saurophilous (saurochory) and to a lesser extent, chiropterophilous (chiropterochory). • HABITAT
The genus Myrtillocactus grows in deserts, also in deciduous tropical woodlands, amid mezquites (Prosopis juliflora, P. laevigata, Senna wislizeni), on calcareous soils, rocky hills, in a xerophilous scrub (matorral), often forming characteristic groves, from 20 m up to 2500 m in altitude, and forms a part of true plant communities composed of cacti and other succulents. • DISTRIBUTION
Guatemala (El Progreso, Huehuetenango, Quiche), Mexico (Aguascalientes, Baja-California, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacan, Morelos, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Zacatecas).
Currently 4 recognised species:
– Myrtillocactus cochal* (Orcutt) Britton & Rose 1909
– Myrtillocactus eichlamii Britton & Rose 1920
– Myrtillocactus geometrizans* (Mart.) DC. 1897
– Myrtillocactus schenckii* (J.A.Purpus) Britton & Rose 1909
