Melocactus

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Melocactus
Melocactus glaucescens with a clearly pronounced reddish-white cephalium at the tip of the gray-green body.

Melocactus glaucescens
with a clearly pronounced reddish-white cephalium at the tip of the gray-green body.

Systematics
Nuclear eudicotyledons
Order : Clove-like (Caryophyllales)
Family : Cactus family (Cactaceae)
Subfamily : Cactoideae
Tribe : Cereeae
Genre : Melocactus
Scientific name
Melocactus
Link & Otto
Melocactus sergipensis at the type location , Sergipe / Brazil May 9, 2018
Flower of Melocactus zehntneri
Melocactus braunii
Melocactus deinacanthus
Melocactus lanssensianus
Melocactus oreas
Melocactus paucispinus

Melocactus is a genus of plants from the cactus family(Cactaceae). The botanical name of the genus is derived from the Greek noun μηλον melon for "apple" or "melon" and refers to the size and shape of the plant body.

description

The depressed spherical to cylindrical growing species of the genus Melocactus reach heights of growth of less than one meter. The shoots consist of 8 to 27 vertical ribs that are not divided into warts or bumps. Small to large areoles sit on them , from which 3 to 21 (or more) spines arise, which can hardly be differentiated into central and radial spines and which are sometimes hooked in young plants. After the completion of vegetative growth in the youth phase, a terminal cephalium forms , which consists of woolen hair and bristles.

The short-lived, small flowers appear from the cephalium. They are tubular, red to pink in color, and bald.

The short to long club-shaped, juicy fruits are glabrous. They can be white, pink, magenta or reddish and have a perennial remnant of flowers. The fruits contain black, spherical to egg-shaped seeds .

distribution

The distribution area of ​​the genus Melocactus extends from western Mexico south through Central America to Ecuador and south of Peru . In the east it extends to Venezuela and eastern Brazil and includes the Caribbean .

Systematics

The type species of the genus is Cactus melocactus . The genus Melocactus includes the following species:

  • Melocactus x albicephalus

  • Melocactus inconcinnus holotype specimen

Botanical history

"Melocarduus echinatus, de Pena" from Jacques Daléchamps : Historia Generalis Plantarum from 1586
Picture of a Melocactus in Charles de l'Ecluses 1605 the released and Exoticorum .

Species of the genus Melocactus are among the first species of cactus to reach Europe. An early illustration and description as Echinomelocactos can be found in Charles de l'Écluses Exoticorum from 1605. Joseph Pitton de Tournefort shortened the spelling to Melocactus in his Élémens de botanique in 1694 and gave a first description of the genus. In 1753, Carl von Linné summarized all cactus species under the genus Cactus in Species Plantarum , including the species Cactus melocactus , which is the type of the genus today and was only validly described in 1991 as Melocactus caroli-linnaei . In 1827 Heinrich Friedrich Link and Christoph Friedrich Otto described the genre in its current form.

proof

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Edward F. Anderson : The great cactus lexicon . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , p. 421-432 .
  2. ↑ PJ Braun & B. Goncalves Brito: Melocactus heimenii (Cactaceae) - an interesting new find from northern Bahia, Brazil . In: Cacti and Other Succulents Volume 70, Number 10, pp. 307-313. 2019
  3. ↑ P. Brown: Melocactus inconcinnus - an almost Forgotten . In: Cacti and other succulents Volume 67, Number 8, pp. 219–221. 2016
  4. ↑ Braun, P., Taylor, NP, Machado, M. & Zappi, D. 2013. Melocactus inconcinnus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T151815A564657. doi: 10.2305 / IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T151815A564657.en accessed on August 6, 2016.
  5. ^ PJ Braun & G. Heimen: Melocactus sergipensis - Status 2018 . In: Cacti and other succulents Volume 71, Number 1, pp. 17-22. 2020
  6. ↑ Braun, PJ & Esteves Pereira, E. 2002: Cacti and other succulents in Brazil - Schumannia, Volume 3. ISBN 3-89598-830-8
  7. ^ PJ Braun & G. Heimen: A new status of Melocactus douradaensis . In: Cacti and other succulents, Volume 71, Number 4, pp. 108-110. 2020
  8. ↑ HF Link, F. Otto: About the genera Melocactus and Echinocactus, together with description and illustration of the in Königl. botanical garden near Berlin . In: Negotiations of the Association for the Promotion of Horticulture in the Royal Prussian States . Volume 3, 1827, p. 417 (online) .

further reading

  • José Luis Fernández Alonso, Guy Xhonneux: Novedades taxonómicas y sinopsis del género Melocactus Link & Otto (Cactaceae) en Colombia . In: Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales . Volume 26, number 100, 2002, pp. 353-365 (PDF; 11.1 MB) .
  • NL Britton , JN Rose : The Cactaceae . Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family . tape III . The Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington 1922, p. 220-238 ( online ).
  • Friedrich Anton Wilhelm Miquel : Monographia generis Melocacti . Eduard Weber, Breslau / Bonn 1840 (online) .
  • Nigel P. Taylor: The Genus Melocactus (Cactaceae) in Central and South America . In: Bradleya . Volume 9, 1991, pp. 1-80.

Web links

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