Autor: Britton & Rose
• ETYMOLOGY
A genus honouring Webster E. Browning (1869-1942), director of the English Institute of Santiago, Chile (Portrait
unknown).
• DESCRIPTION
A genus of plants usually treelike and branched, with ribbed cylindrical stems, candelabra like or columnar, some
having the characteristics of a trunk densely covered with spines while the reproductive stems lack them.
Flowers nocturnal, remaining open in the morning, self sterile, tubular or funnel-shaped, with a floral tube slightly
bent back and covered with scales, white, creamy-white to orange red, pollinated by bats (Platalina genovensium)
and by hummingbirds (Rhodopis vesper). Fruits rather small, spherical to egg-shaped, more or less fleshy, dry when
ripe, having deciduous scales. Seeds variable, usually ovoid, sometimes wrinkled, shiny, brownish black, dispersed by bats (Platalina genovensium) and birds (Phyllotis darwinii).
• HABITAT
The genus Browningia grows in mountains, on hills, on often rocky areas with steep terrain, among shrubs in a
xerophytic vegetation, or in areas of extreme aridity, from 400 m up to 3000 m in altitude.
• DISTRIBUTION
Bolivia, N. Chile (Arica, Tarapacá), Colombia (Boyacá, disjunction), Ecuador (Cañar, Loja), Peru (Amazonas, Ancash, Apurimac, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, lea, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Lima, Moquegua, Pasco, Tacna).
Currently 9 recognised species + one subspecies:
– Browningia albiceps F.Ritter 1981
– Browningia altissima (F.Ritter) Buxb. 1965
– Browningia amstutziae (Rauh & Backeb.) Hutchison ex Krainz 1965
– Browningia candelaris* Britton & Rose 1920
– Browningia candelaris subsp. icaensis (F.Ritter) Hunt 2002
– Browningia chlorocarpa* (Kunth) W.T.Marshall 1945
– Browningia hernandezii F.AIonso 2006
– Browningia microsperma* (Werderm. & Backeb.) W.T.Marshall 1947
– Browningia pilleifera (F.Ritter) Hutchison 1968
– Browningia utcubambensis H.Wittner 2012 (doubtful taxon)
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3723-9 (Vol. 1)