Autor: Ritter
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus native of the province of Yungas, La Paz, Bolivia, where it was first found.
• DESCRIPTION
Monotypic genus of shrubby to treelike plants, branched, columnar, 4-5 m in height, ribs 6-10, little marked, straight, weakly tuberculate and transversely grooved over the areoles. 4-12 spines, centrals and radiais not differentiated, short and aciculate.
Flowers nocturnal remaining open during the day, self-sterile, rather small, appearing near the stem tips, floral tube with imbricated fluffy scales, narrowly funnel-shaped, slightly zygomorphic, white, pollinated by bats. Fruits small, broad at the base, scales numerous and fleshy, retaining more or less the remains of the dried perianth. Seed elongated, shiny, blackish brown.
• HABITAT
The monotypic genus Yungasocereus is endemic to Bolivia, and grows from approximately 1450 m up to 2550 m in altitude, in a hot and humid tropical area, in forests, the Yungas, which, in Aymara, means “Hot Lands”.
• DISTRIBUTION
Bolivia (La Paz).
Currently only one recognised species:
– Yungasocereus inquisivensis* (Cardenas) F.Ritter 1980
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3692-8 (Vol. 2)