Melocactus
Melocactus | ||||||||||||
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Melocactus glaucescens |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Melocactus | ||||||||||||
Link & Otto |
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:
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Melocactus × albicephalus
Buining & Brederoo
natural hybrid between Melocactus ernestii and Melocactus glaucescens -
Melocactus andinus R. Gruber ex NPTaylor
- Melocactus andinus subsp. andinus
- Melocactus andinus subsp. hernandezii (Fern.Alonso & Xhonneux) NPTaylor
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Melocactus azureus Buining & Brederoo
- Melocactus azureus subsp. azureus
- Melocactus azureus subsp. ferreophilus (Buining & Brederoo) NPTaylor
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Melocactus bahiensis (Britton & Rose) Luetzelb.
- Melocactus bahiensis subsp. bahiensis
- Melocactus bahiensis subsp. amethystinus (Buining & Brederoo) NPTaylor
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Melocactus bellavistensis Rauh & Backeb.
- Melocactus bellavistensis subsp. bellavistensis
- Melocactus bellavistensis subsp. onychacanthus (F.Ritter) NPTaylor
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Melocactus × bozsingianus
natural hybrid between Melocactus curvispinus subsp. koolwijkianus and Melocactus stramineus - Melocactus braunii Esteves
- Melocactus broadwayi (Britton & Rose) A.Berger
- Melocactus caroli-linnaei N.P. Taylor
- Melocactus concinnus Buining & Brederoo
- Melocactus conoideus Buining & Brederoo
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Melocactus curvispinus whistle.
- Melocactus curvispinus subsp. curvispinus
- Melocactus curvispinus subsp. caesius (HLWendl.) NPTaylor
- Melocactus curvispinus subsp. dawsonii (Bravo) NPTaylor
- Melocactus curvispinus subsp. koolwijkianus (Suringar) G.Thomson
- Melocactus deinacanthus Buining & Brederoo
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Melocactus ernestii Vaupel
- Melocactus ernestii subsp. ernestii
- Melocactus ernestii subsp. longicarpus (Buining & Brederoo) NPTaylor
- Melocactus estevesii P.J. Brown
- Melocactus glaucescens Buining & Brederoo
- Melocactus harlowii (Britton & Rose) Vaupel
- Melocactus heimenii P.J. Braun & Goncalves Brito
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Melocactus × horridus
natural hybrid between Melocactus ernestii and Melocactus zehntneri - Melocactus inconcinnus Buining & Brederoo
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Melocactus intortus (Mill.) Urb.
- Melocactus intortus subsp. intortus
- Melocactus intortus subsp. domingensis Areces
- Melocactus lanssensianus P.J. Brown
- Melocactus lemairei (Monv. Ex Lem.) Miq. ex Lem.
- Melocactus levitestatus Buining & Brederoo
- Melocactus macracanthos (Salm-Dyck) Link & Otto
- Melocactus matanzanus León
- Melocactus mazelianus Říha
- Melocactus neryi K.Schum.
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Melocactus oreas Miq.
- Melocactus oreas subsp. oreas
- Melocactus oreas subsp. cremnophilus (Buining & Brederoo) PJBraun
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Melocactus pachyacanthus Buining & Brederoo
- Melocactus pachyacanthus subsp. pachyacanthus
- Melocactus pachyacanthus subsp. viridis N.P. Taylor
- Melocactus paucispinus Heimen & RJPaul
- Melocactus perezassoi Areces
- Melocactus peruvianus Vaupel
- Melocactus praerupticola Areces
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Melocactus salvadorensis Werderm.
- Melocactus salvadorensis subsp. salvadorensis
- Melocactus salvadorensis subsp. oliveirae P.J. Brown
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Melocactus schatzlii H.Till & R.Gruber
- Melocactus schatzlii subsp. darling
- Melocactus schatzlii subsp. chicamochaensis Fern.Alonso & Xhonneux
- Melocactus sergipensis N.P. Taylor & MV Meiado
- Melocactus smithii (Alexander) Buining ex GDRowley
- Melocactus stramineus Suringar
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Melocactus violaceus whistle.
- Melocactus violaceus subsp. violaceus
- Melocactus violaceus subsp. margaritaceus N.P. Taylor
- Melocactus violaceus subsp. natalensis P.J.Braun & Esteves
- Melocactus violaceus subsp. ritteri N.P. Taylor
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Melocactus zehntneri (Britton & Rose) Luetzelb.
- Melocactus zehntneri subsp. tenneri
- Melocactus zehntneri subsp. arcuatispinus (Buining & Brederoo) PJ Braun & Esteves
- Melocactus zehntneri subsp. douradaensis (Hovens & Strecker) PJ Braun & Heimen
Botanical history
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
- Edward F. Anderson : The Great Cactus Lexicon . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , p. 421-432 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Edward F. Anderson : The great cactus lexicon . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , p. 421-432 .
- ↑ 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
- ↑ P. Brown: Melocactus inconcinnus - an almost Forgotten . In: Cacti and other succulents Volume 67, Number 8, pp. 219–221. 2016
- ↑ 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.
- ^ PJ Braun & G. Heimen: Melocactus sergipensis - Status 2018 . In: Cacti and other succulents Volume 71, Number 1, pp. 17-22. 2020
- ↑ Braun, PJ & Esteves Pereira, E. 2002: Cacti and other succulents in Brazil - Schumannia, Volume 3. ISBN 3-89598-830-8
- ^ PJ Braun & G. Heimen: A new status of Melocactus douradaensis . In: Cacti and other succulents, Volume 71, Number 4, pp. 108-110. 2020
- ↑ 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.