Discocactus horstii

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Endangered

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Cactaceae

Fleshy perennials , shrubs , trees or vines , terrestrial or epiphytic. Stems jointed , terete , globose , flattened, or fluted , mostly leafless and variously spiny . Leaves alternate, flat or subulate to terete, vestigial, or entirely absent; spines, glochids (easily detached, small, bristlelike spines), and flowers always arising from cushionlike, axillary areoles (modified short shoots ) . Flowers solitary, sessile, rarely clustered and stalked (in Pereskia), bisexual , rarely unisexual , actinomorphic or occasionally zygomorphic. Receptacle tube (hypanthium or perianth tube) absent or short to elongate , naked or invested with leaflike bracts, scales , areoles, and hairs , bristles , or spines; perianth segments usually numerous , in a sepaloid to petaloid series. Stamens numerous, variously inserted in throat and tube; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary (pericarpel) inferior, rarely superior, 1-loculed, with 3 to many parietal (rarely basal) placentas; ovules usually numerous; style 1; stigmas 2 to numerous, papillate , rarely 2-fid. Fruit juicy or dry, naked, scaly , hairy , bristly , or spiny, indehiscent or dehiscent , when juicy then pulp derived from often deliquescent funicles (except in Pereskia) . Seeds usually numerous, often arillate or strophiolate ; embryo curved or rarely straight; endosperm present or absent; cotyledons reduced or vestigial, rarely leaflike.

About 110 genera and more than 1000 species: temperate and tropical America; Rhipsalis baccifera (J. S. Mueller) Stearn native in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarenes, and Sri Lanka; some species of other genera now extensively naturalized in the Old World through human agency; more than 60 genera and 600 species cultivated as ornamentals or hedges in China, of which four genera and seven species more or less naturalized.[1]

Physical Description

Habitat

Biome: Terrestrial [2].

Ecology: South-eastern campo rupestre (Grão Mogol) element: in quartz gravel and sand beneath shrubs in campo rupestre.[2].

List of Habitats :

•     2     Savanna   
  
•     2.1     Savanna - Dry   
[more info]

Biology

Growth

Culture: Space 6-9" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Discocactus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 17 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

D. bahiensis (Discocactus) · D. ferricola (Discocactus) · D. hartmannii (Discocactus) · D. heptacanthus (Discocactus) · D. heptacanthus catingicola (Discocactus) · D. heptacanthus 'Boliviensis' (Discocactus) · D. heptacanthus 'Cangaensis' (Discocactus) · D. heptacanthus 'Crassispinus' (Discocactus) · D. horstii (Discocactus) · D. insignis (Discocactus) · D. placentiformis (Discocactus) · D. pseudoinsignis (Discocactus) · D. zehntneri (Discocactus) · D. zehntneri boomianus (Discocactus) · D. zehntneri var. albispinus (Discocactus) · D. zehntneri var. araneispinus (Discocactus) · D. zehntneri var. horstiorum (Discocactus)

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• 1997 IUCN red list of threatened plants Cambridge: IUCN, World Conservation Union, 1998 url p. 94.
• Checklist of CITES Species CITES, WCMC url p. 275, p. 276.
• Checklist of CITES Species: a reference to the appendices to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES url p. 275.
• .Li Zhenyu. 1999. Cactaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 272-285.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 17, 2012.
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
• Taylor, N.P. 2002. Discocactus horstii. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 31January2012.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 5780155
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15297044
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:131477-1
• IUCN ID: 205807
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 645243

Footnotes

1. Zhen-yu Li & Nigel P. Taylor "Cactaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 209. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Taylor, N.P. 2002. Discocactus horstii. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 31 January 2012. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.