Autor: Riccobono
• ETYMOLOGY
A genus honouring Antonio Borzi (1852-1921), director of the botanical garden of Palermo, in Italy (see portrait above, ©Public Affairs Branch Office in Palermo, Italy).
• DESCRIPTION
A genus made up of erect, crawling or decumbent plants, with more or less sturdy, cylindrical, long stems, ribs rounded, more or less thick around the areoles, sometimes with chins. Spines relatively short and often numerous, aciculate.
Flowers diurnal, more or less zygomorphic, with a long, slightly bent and more or less hairy tube, pollinated by
hummingbirds (Patagona gigas, Phaetornis spp.), red, carmine to scarlet red, yellow, orange-coloured or pink. Fruits
spherical to sub-spherical, generally fleshy with longitudinal dehiscence. Seeds brownish to black, elongated,
tuberculate.
• HABITAT
The genus Borzicactus grows often as epilithic (= rupicolous, on rocks), in the eastern foothills of the Andes, usually
on inclined surfaces from 30 m (B. crassiserpens) up to 3500 m in altitude, in full sun, in dry valleys or on hills, among bushes and shrubs, in very mineral soils, also in the shade of tropical dry forests, in a loamy soil covered with leaves and plant debris.
• DISTRIBUTION
Ecuador (Azuay, Riobamba), Peru (Amazonas, Ancash, Cajamarca, Lambayeque, Lima, Piura).
Currently 12 recognised species + 3 subspecies:
– Borzicactus aureispinus* (F.Ritter) G.D.Rowley 1975
– Borzicactus crassiserpens J.Lodé 2013
– Borzicactus fieldianus* Britton & Rose 1923
– Borzicactus hutchisonii G.Charles 2010
– Borzicactus icosagonus* (Kunth) Britton & Rose 1920
– Borzicactus icosagonus subsp. humboldtii (Kunth) G.Charles 2012
– Borzicactus icosagonus subsp. roseiflorus (Burning) G.Charles 2012
– Borzicactus leonensis (Madsen) G.Charles 2012
– Borzicactus longiserpens* (Leuenberger) G.Charles 2010 (= B. serpens)
– Borzicactus longiserpens subsp. erectus G.Charles 2010
– Borzicactus neoroezlii F.Ritter 1961
– Borzicactus plagiostoma* (Vaupel) Britton & Rose 1920 (= B. purpureus)
– Borzicactus samaipatanus* (Cárdenas) Kimnach 1960
– Borzicactus sepium* (Kunth) Britton & Rose 1920
– Borzicactus tenuiserpens (Rauh & Backeb.) Kimnach 1960
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3723-9 (Vol. 1)