Autor: Cárdenas
• ETYMOLOGY
Genus native of the region of Samaipata, in Bolivia, hence the name.
• DESCRIPTION
Monotypic genus of treelike, columnar plants, with a trunk and heavily branched. Stems cylindrical, erect, not segmented, dark green, up to 4-6 well-defined ribs, with brown areoles well-separated and regularly arranged. Usually 5 spines, undifferentiated, short, subulate, one of them longer than the others and pointing downwards.
Flowers nocturnal, but remaining open during the next day, numerous, self-fertile, appearing often far under the apex, funnel-shaped with a long tube covered with scales, hairs and bristles, white, pollinated by bats (Anoura caudifer, A. geoffroyi, Glossophaga soricina) and hummingbirds. Fruits globose, truncate and tuberculate, pink-red with longitudinal dehiscence, exposing a lively orange pulp, floral remains persistent, dispersal ornithophilous. Seeds ovate, dark brown, shiny, with little marked relief.
• HABITAT
The monotypic genus Samaipaticereus grows endemically in the province of Santa Cruz in Bolivia, on rocky steep slopes, always in quebradas (valleys), from 1150 m up to 2500 m in altitude.
• DISTRIBUTION
Bolivia (Santa Cruz).
Currently only one recognised species:
– Samaipaticereus corroanus* Cardenas 1952
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3692-8 (Vol. 2)