Autor: Braun & Esteves Pereira
• ETYMOLOGY
“Dry fruit” characteristic of the fruit of this genus, which dries when ripe.
• DESCRIPTION
A genus of columnar plants with erect stems, usually solitary, bluish, with a very woody vascular cylinder, with a continuous and deeply sunken cephalium, developing when the stem exceeds one metre, densely furnished with white wool, with long yellow or reddish bristles. Areoles ovate, densely woolly. Spines aciculate, straight, strongly developed at the base of stems.
Flowers nocturnal, self-sterile, funnel-shaped to bell-shaped, ivory white, pollinated by bats (Monophyllus redmani, Phyllonycterispoeyi). Fruits first sunken into the cephalium, bluish, thin-walled, dry, basally dehiscent, with remnants of the perianth deciduous, not darkening. Seeds brown, very irregularly elongated, with a cellular testa. Anemophilous dispersal reported for S. dolichospermaticus (Taylor & Zappi 2004).
• HABITAT
The genus Siccobaccatus grows endemically in Brazil, from 400 m up to 760 m in altitude, usually on broken rocks or limestone outcrops (Bambui formation), sometimes in dense populations (S. estevesii), to the edge of tropical dry woodlands with a spiny vegetation (caatinga). Their cephaliums are always oriented in the same direction, the northwest (southern part of the American continent). They are often found together with bromeliads and other cacti such as Meiocactus.
• DISTRIBUTION
Brazil (Bahia, D.F., Goias, Minas Gerais, Tocantins).
Currently 3 recognised species:
– Siccobaccatus dolichospermaticus (Burning & Brederoo) P.J.Braun & Esteves 1990
– Siccobaccatus estevesii (Burning & Brederoo) P.J.Braun & Esteves 1990
– Siccobaccatus insigniflorus (Diers & Esteves) Braun & Esteves 2008
References: "TAXONOMY of the CACTACEAE" - ISBN 978-84-617-3692-8 (Vol. 2)