Autor: Backeberg
• ETYMOLOGY
≪Cereus with oblique flowers≫, main feature of this genus.
• DESCRIPTION
A genus of medium sized plants with stems branched laterally, thin, erect to decumbent, rib slightly marked, more or less tuberculate. Areoles rather small, situated at the top of tubercles. Spines usually rather short and many, setose to aciculate.
Flowers diurnal, self-sterile, funnel-shaped, with long, slender floral tube, sometimes covered with hairs or wool, more or less zygomorphic, red to orange-coloured, red to scarlet, red tinged with carmine or yellow, pollinated by hummingbirds. Fruits small, globose, greenish to reddish, floral remains persistent. Seeds matt, black, dotted with holes.
• HABITAT
The genus Loxanthocereus grows endemically in Peru, on rocks, in full sun or among grasses and bushes, in crevices, in mountains, also near the Pacific coast, from 50 m (L. sextonianus) up to 3300 m in altitude.
• DISTRIBUTION
Peru (Ancash, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Huancavelica, lea, La Libertad, Lima, Tacna).
Currently 12 species plus 2 su bsp ecies (maybe more):
– Loxanthocereus acanthurus* (Vaupel) Backeb. 1937
– Loxanthocereus acanthurus subsp. faustianus (Backeberg) Ostolaza 1998
– Loxanthocereus acanthurus subsp. pullatus (Rauh & Backeberg) Ostolaza 1998
– Loxanthocereus camanaensis Rauh & Backeb. 1957 (non L sextonianus)
– Loxanthocereus clavispinus Rauh & Backeb. 1957
– Loxanthocereus hoffmannii F.Ritter 1981
– Loxanthocereus jajoianus (Backeb.) Backeb. 1942
– Loxanthocereus hystrix Rauh & Backeb. 1957
– Loxanthocereus hoxeyi (G.Charles) J.Lode 2014 (ex Borzicactus hoxeyi)
– Loxanthocereus pachycladus Rauh & Backeb. 1957
– Loxanthocereus peculiaris Rauh & Backeb. 1957
– Loxanthocereus sextonianus* (Backeb.) Backeb. 1942
– Loxanthocereus sulcifer Rauh & Backeb. 1957
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3723-9 (Vol. 1)