Autor: Schumann
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus honouring Pierre Rebut (1828-1898), French cactus nurseryman.
• DESCRIPTION
A genus of small size, low growing plants, solitary or forming compact clumps, globose depressed or shortly cylindrical. Areoles variable, rounded, ovate or elliptic. Spines tiny, usually fine, extremely variable in size, sometimes hairlike, mostly white.
Flowers diurnal, usually self-fertile, funnel-shaped, with pericarpel practically glabrous, yellow, orange, pink or red, pollinated by bees. Fruits rather small, globose, dry papery when ripe, disintegrating. Seeds numerous, ovate, black, shiny. Dispersal ensured by ants (myrmecochory).
• HABITAT
The genus Rebutia grows often in crevices or at feet of rocks, in the highlands of Bolivia and northern Argentina, from 1200 m up to 3600 m in altitude, where it withstands snow and sometimes severe frosts, but under a very low level of humidity.
• DISTRIBUTION
Argentina (Catamarca, Jujuy, Salta, Tucuman), Bolivia (Tarija).
Currently 5 likely species + one (or more?) subspecies, but according to Hunt et al. 2006, only 3 very variable species (R.fabrisii, R. minuscula and R. padcayensis):
– Rebutнa fabrisii* Rausch 1977 + subsp.?
– Rebutнa krainziana* Kessel ring 1948
– Rebutнa marsoneri* Werderm. 1937
– Rebutнa minuscula* K.Schum. 1895 (= R. senilis)
– Rebutнa minuscula subsp. wessneriana (Bewer.) Muruaga 2008
– Rebutнa padcayensis* Rausch 1970 (= R. margarethae)
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3692-8 (Vol. 2)