Echinomastus
Echinomastus is a genus of flowering plants of the cactus family ( Cactaceae ). The botanical name of the genus is derived from the Greek words " έχίνος " ( echinos ) for hedgehogs and " μαοτός " ( mastos ) for " breast " from. He refers to the thorny warts of the plant body.
Description
The species of the genus Echinomastus grow with spherical to short cylindrical stems that are often completely covered with thorns. The low ribs are usually spirally and are clearly divided into humps. The areoles form along the top of the hump a rut and extra-floral nectaries often possess. The central spines are missing sometimes, the spines are usually acicular and interlocking.
The white to pink or magenta or purple flowers appear from the warts peaks in the apex region. They open on the day. Your flower tube is short or absent, the Perikarpell is covered with scales. The flowers oblong, scaly fruits that dry up and break open later with a basal opening or side develop. The black, oval to kidney-shaped seeds are dimpled.
Systematics and distribution
The genus Echinomastus is common in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
The first description was published in 1922 by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose. The type species of the genus Echinocactus is erectocentrus.
Some botanists, such as David Richard Hunt in the New Cactus Lexicon of 2006, provide the species of the genus completely Sclerocactus, but this is controversial. Molecular genetic studies have shown that Echinomastus is most closely related to the genus Sclerocactus, but there are morphological and genetic differences.
The genus Echinomastus include the following types:
- Echinomastus erectocentrus
- Echinomastus gautii
- Echinomastus intertextus
- Echinomastus johnsonii
- Echinomastus mariposensis
- Echinomastus unguispinus
- Echinomastus warnockii