• ETYMOLOGY
Genus honouring Julien Marnier-Lapostolle (1902-1976), French botanist and explorer, owner of the famous French orange-flavoured liqueur “Grand Marnier” (see portrait above, cWerner Rauh). • DESCRIPTION
Monospecific genus of climbing and spreading vigorous epiphytic plants, with phylloclades having very long and fine lobes. Areoles between lobes.
Flowers nocturnal, large, self-sterile, with long tube, white, strongly perfumed, styles of the stamens bright yellow, with outer tepals purple, with the ovary bearing bristles, usually pollinated by moths, and also seemingly by bats. Fruits densely spiny, globose, green to grey and with a juicy pulp. Seeds not known. • HABITAT
The monotypic genus Marniera grows epiphytically, covering the branches of trees in rainforests, at low altitudes (not precisely recorded), together with ferns, orchids, bromeliads and other epiphytic cacti, endemically, in an extremely reduced area (less than 1km2) in the state of Chiapas in Mexico. It was also observed in Tabasco, and it is therefore likely that its distribution area is more widespread, but is probably underestimated for now. • DISTRIBUTION
Mexico (Chiapas, Tabasco).
Currently only one recognised species:
– Marniera chrysocardium (Alexander) Backeb. 1959
• ETYMOLOGY
“Composed of nipples”, referring to the tubercles of the plants, typical in this genus. • DESCRIPTION
A genus of usually small, low-growing plants, globose to elongated, sometimes strongly caespitose and forming cushions. Stems distinctly tuberculate, sometimes laticiferous (producing latex, a milky sap). Tubercles mostly conical, cylindrical or pyramidal, devoid of glands, not grooved, at the top of which are spines, arranged mostly in two groups, radial spines, with forms and texture extremely variable, hairy, bristly, aciculate, subulate, etc., and central spines, usually sturdier, more often hooked in some species, sometimes absent. Axils naked, hairy, felted or setose, according to species.
Flowers diurnal, sometimes self-fertile, appearing at the axil of old areoles, at the base of tubercles, often forming a crown around the apex, rather small, bell-shaped or funnel-shaped, with a naked pericarpel, very diverse in colours, mostly purple pink, but also white, cream, yellow, red, magenta, lilac, pollinated by insects (bees, wasps and butterflies) or hummingbirds (in Mammillaria senilis). Fruits are berries, elongated, naked, mostly shiny red, but also white, yellow, green or orange. Seeds extremely variable according to species, pitted or wrinkled, tuberculate or smooth, light brown to dark brown or black, matt or shiny. Dispersal of seeds insured by lizards and ants. • HABITAT
Considering its extreme biodiversity and according to species, the genus Mammillaria grows in very diverse habitats, in the shade of bushes and shrubs among mosses, lichens and ferns, or in full sun, on grassy hills, grasslands, dry arroyos, on limestone, marl, sandstone, granitic, basaltic, rhyolithic, ferruginous rocks, on oxidized conglomerates, mica-schists, slates, quartz, altered porphyr, volcanic tuffs or gypsum, in crevices and cracks, in pockets of humus, on steep cliffs, at the edge of often inaccessible ravines, in canyons, in forests under oaks, pines, junipers, cypresses, also in deserts, on sand dunes near the Atlantic or Pacific coast, on sandy, clayey, muddy or gravelly, loamy, volcanic alluvial detrital soils, in mountains, on steep slopes, from sea level up to 3300 m in altitude, sometimes under snow and ice in winter (M. vetula, M. senilis), together with numerous other cacti and succulents as well as bromeliads and orchids. • DISTRIBUTION
The Antilles, Bahama Islands, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala (Alta + Baja Verapaz, Chiquimula, El Progreso, Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Jalapa, Quetzaltenango, Quiche, San Marcos, Solola, Zacapa), Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico (Aguascalientes, Baja California, Chihuahua, Chiapas, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico D.F., Michoacan, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas), Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, USA (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas), Venezuela, Virgin Islands.
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus superficially resembling Maihuenia. • DESCRIPTION
A genus of low-growing plants forming compact cushions of indistinctly segmented stems, not easily detached, with tuberous roots (geophytic, branched plants, clumps just emerging from the ground in M. clavarioides). Stems containing a lot of mucilage. The stem segments are typically globose to egg-shaped, with tiny, deciduous leaves (polymorphic, irregular, not tuberculate, davate and cylindrical to subconical with flattened and depressed apex in M. clavarioides). Areoles situated in a depression, bearing hairs, glochids and usually spines, except at the basal areoles. When present, the spines are often flattened. In M. clavarioides, tiny, reduced areoles at the base, becoming numerous towards the top of stems, glochids absent. Spines few (max. 10), tiny, pectinate, appressed on the plant.
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, mostly yellow, more rarely orange or red (yellow greenish to olive green in M. clavarioides), pollinated by hymenoptera. Fruits thick-walled, fleshy, indehiscent, greenish to yellowish, covered with woolly areoles bearing mostly glochids and sometimes fine spines (fruits pear-shaped, dry and irregularly dehiscent in M. clavarioides, floral remains persistent). Seeds large, flattened, pale yellow, lenticular, ellipsoid or bony, with woolly funicular enveloppe. • HABITAT
The genus Maihueniopsis often grows in abundant colonies in Patagonia, in very compact cushions, on clayey or sandy jlains, in the Argentine Puna on very bare areas, even in the high mountains of the Andes, between 25 m (M. darwinii) and 4850 m in altitude (M. glomerata), making it one of the genera of cacti growing at the highest altitude. • DISTRIBUTION
Argentina (Catamarca, Jujuy, La Rioja, Mendoza, Neuquen, Salta, San Juan, Santa Cruz), Bolivia (Potosi, Tarija), Chile (Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo, Santiago, Tarapaca, Valparaiso).
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus derived from the indigenous Mapuche word “Maihuen” which means woman, and which is also given to this plant. • DESCRIPTION
A genus of low-growing plants, forming compact cushions, reaching several metres in diameter. Stems individual, segmented or not, with a long taproot (up to 40 cm long). Leaves conical to linear, persistent. Areoles rather small and numerous, with silky hairs. Central spine sometimes absent, more or less flattened; two radial spines, inconspicuous.
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, terminal, solitary, opening widely, yellow or white, pollinated by hymenoptera. Fruits obovate to davate, with fleshy bracts, without pulp. Seeds almost circular, shiny, black, smooth to slightly tuberculate, streaked on the margins. • HABITAT
The genus Maihuenia grows in a very wide geographic area, commonly in open arid places, with a typical growth habit of very large and flattened cushions, usually on volcanic soils, from sea level up to the limit (variable) of permanent snow cover in the Andes, that is approximately 4800 m in altitude. • DISTRIBUTION
Argentina (Chubut, Mendoza, Neuquen, Rio Negro, Santa Cruz), Chile (Bio-Bio, La Araucania, Maule).
Currently 2 recognised species:
– Maihuenia patagуnica* (Phil.) Speg. 1919
– Maihuenia poeppigii* (Otto ex Pfeiffer) Phil, ex K.Schum. 1898
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus honouring Lyman David Benson (1909-1993), North American botanist specializing in cacti (see portrait above, public domain). • DESCRIPTION
A genus of terrestrial or epiphytic plants, forming erect or hanging bushy stems, with mesotonic ramifications, with stems usually flattened, notched, sometimes wavy, having spines in the areoles, as well as bristles or wool.
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, appearing laterally, narrowly bell-shaped, orange, purple red to intense magenta, or white [L. brevispina), some (L. micrantha) pollinated by hummingbirds. Fruits globose or angular, usually opaque, white to pinkish, greenish or reddish-brown. Seeds blackish-brown, shiny. • HABITAT
The genus Lymanbensonia grows in the shade epiphytically in trees, or on rocks (epilithic), from 1700 m up to 2500 m in altitude. • DISTRIBUTION
Bolivia (La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz), Ecuador (Loja), Peru (Amazonas, Junin, Puno).
