Maihuenia

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Maihuenia
Maihuenia poeppigii in flower in the Dresden Botanical Garden

Maihuenia poeppigii
in flower in the Dresden Botanical Garden

Systematics
Eudicotyledons
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Cactus family (Cactaceae)
Subfamily : Maihuenioideae
Genre : Maihuenia
Scientific name of the  subfamily
Maihuenioideae
P.Fearn
Scientific name of the  genus
Maihuenia
( Phil. Ex FACWeber ) K.Schum.

Maihuenia is a genus from the family of the cactus (Cactaceae) and is the only genus within the subfamily of Maihuenioideae . The botanical name is derived from "maihuén", which the Mapuche use to designate plants. It belongs to the C3 plants .

description

The low-growing, sprouting plants form cushions up to more than a meter in circumference. Their segmented or non-segmented, olive-green, succulent trunk is spherical to short-cylindrical and has greatly reduced, permanent, small leaves . They are conical to linear and round in cross section. From the numerous, small areoles with silky hairs arise usually three white to brown thorns , which are slightly darker at the tip. The central spine, which can also be absent, is stronger than the two radial spines.

The white or yellow, single flowers are terminal with a spread out flower cover . They open in the day. The flowers are 3 to 4 (rarely 2.5 to 5) centimeters long and reach a diameter of 4 to 6 (rarely 2.5 to 6) centimeters.

The almost spherical, elongated or club-shaped fruits are yellow, somewhat fleshy with numerous scales. They contain shiny black, almost circular seeds 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter.

Systematics and distribution

The genus is distributed in the south of South America and there mainly in Patagonia .

Eduard Friedrich Poeppig described the first plants under the name Opuntia caespitosa in 1835 . However, this name was already taken and so the valid first description of a species of this genus comes from Ludwig Pfeiffer who published the description of Opuntia poeppigii in 1837 . It was described as an independent genus in 1883 by Rudolph Amandus Philippi . The type species is Opuntia poeppigii Otto ex Pfeiff.

The genus Maihuenia includes the following two species :

proof

literature

  • Edward F. Anderson : The Great Cactus Lexicon . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , p. 360-361 .
  • Curt Backeberg : Die Cactaceae: Handbuch der Kakteenkunde . 2nd Edition. tape I . Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart New York 1982, ISBN 3-437-30380-5 , p. 119-123 .
  • NL Britton , JN Rose : The Cactaceae. Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family . tape I . The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 1919, p. 40 ff .
  • Walther Haage : cacti from A to Z . 3. Edition. Quelle & Meyer Verlag, Heidelberg 1986, ISBN 3-494-01142-7 , p. 368 f .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Enumeratio Diagnostica Cactearum hucusque Cognitarum . 1837, p. 174.
  2. ↑ Garden flora . Monthly for German and Swiss gardening and floristry Edited by E. Regel . Volume 32, Erlangen 1883, p. 260.
  3. ^ Edward F. Anderson : The great cactus lexicon . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , p. 360-361 .

Web links

Commons : Maihuenia  - collection of images, videos and audio files