Autor: Britton & Rose
• ETYMOLOGY
A genus honouring Thomas Avery Corry ( 1862-1942 ), engineer of Railroads in Peru (Ferrocarril del Sur), who helped Britton and Rose to explore the country. They said that they found thanks to him, not less than three species of this genus throughout the route of railway. Portrait is unknown.
• DESCRIPTION
A genus of shrubby to treelike plants, with columnar stems, branching from the base, erect or procumbent and strongly spiny. Sometimes very long spines (up to 24 cm long in C. brevistylus).
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, funnel-shaped to bell-shaped, with a short and thick floral tube, bearing small scales, yellow, orange, pink, salmon pink, red to carmine red, pollinated by insects (hymenoptera and diptera), also by hummingbirds (Rhodopis vesper). Fruits globose, covered with spines falling when ripe, fleshy to juicy, pulp acid, edible, floral remains persistent. Seeds rather small, wrinkled, black, coarsely tuberculate, covered with a mucilage envelope, scattered by bats (Platalina genovensium) or, for some species, by deer (Hippocamelus antisensis).
• HABITAT
The genus Corryocactus grows in the Andes, on reliefs, foothills, on steep slopes, also near the Pacific coast, in dry stony, rocky or sandy areas in full sun, or in the shade under bushes among grasses, from 50 m up to 3800 m in altitude. Some species use the immediate surrounding vegetation to remain upright (eg. C. pulquinensis).
• DISTRIBUTION
Bolivia (Cochabamba, La Paz, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija), N. Chile (Arica, Tarapaca), Peru (Amazonas, Ancash, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Cuzco, Huancavelica, Huanuco, La Libertad, Lima, Moquegua, Tacna).
Currently 18 possible species:
– Corryocactus apiciflorus* (Vaupel) Hutchison 1963 (= C. tenuiculus)
– Corryocactus aureus* (Meyen) Hutchison ex Buxb. 1963
– Corryocactus ayacuchoensis Rauh & Backeb. 1957
– Corryocactus ayopayanus Cardenas 1952
– Corryocactus brachypetalus* (Vaupel) Britton & Rose 1920
– Corryocactus brevistylus* (K.Schum.) Britton & Rose 1920
– Corryocactus chachapoyensis Ochoa & Backeb. ex D.R.Hunt 1999
– Corryocactus charazanensis Cardenas 1957
– Corryocactus erectus (Backeb.) F.Ritter 1981
– Corryocactus erici-marae N.Cieza 2012 (= C. apiciflorus ?)
– Corryocactus huincoensis F.Ritter 1981
– Corryocactus melanotrichus (K.Schum.) Britton & Rose 1920
– Corryocactus prostratus F.Ritter 1981
– Corryocactus pulquinensis Cardenas 1957
– Corryocactus quadrangularis (Rauh & Backeb.) F.Ritter 1958
– Corryocactus serpens F.Ritter 1981
– Corryocactus squarrosus (Vaupel) Hutchison 1963
– Corryocactus tarijensis Cardenas 1952
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3723-9 (Vol. 1)