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• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Similar Species
• Bibliography
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Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms:

1. Cereus diguetii A. Weber
2. Cereus striatus Brandeg.
3. Neoevansia striata (Brandeg.) Sánchez-Mejorada
4. Wilcoxia diguetii (A. Weber) Peebles
5. Wilcoxia striata (Brandeg.) Britt. & Rose

Notes:

Name Status: Accepted Name. Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Physical 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]

Genus Peniocereus:

Shrubs, low, erect to sprawling, arching, or scrambling, sparingly branched. Roots turnip-shaped or tuberlike and clustered. Stems unsegmented, gray, gray-green, greenish brown, brown, or purplish, columnar, proximally terete, distally terete or angled [or dimorphic with young stems 3-5-angled and adult stems terete in two Mexican species], [12-]25-300[-400] × 0.3-2[-6] cm, rigid, slender, canescent [or papillate]; ribs [3-]4-9[-20], often prominent, rib crests usually straight, uninterrupted; areoles (3.5-) 5-20 mm apart along ribs, circular to elliptic, lanose or sometimes glabrate; areolar glands absent; cortex and pith not mucilaginous. Spines 5-15(-17) per areole, yellowish white, sometimes with black tips, conic, subulate with swollen bases, sometimes acicular to bristlelike, 1.5-4[-25] mm, puberulent to glabrate, scurfy; radial and central spines similar. Flowers nocturnal (remaining open next day), usually borne laterally along distal portions of ribs, at adaxial edges of areoles, usually fragrant, salverform with long tube flaring abruptly near apex, usually 7-25 cm; tepals lanceolate to oblanceolate, apiculate to attenuate; outer tepals greenish, usually tinged with red, purple, brown, or white, 25-50 × 2-6 mm, margins entire or minutely ciliate; inner tepals commonly white [or red], sometimes lightly tinged cream, rose, red, or green, 25-75 × 8-12 mm, margins entire to slightly undulate; ovary with low tubercles, minutely scaly or scaleless, spiny, areoles woolly; stigma lobes 9-12, white to yellow-white, 10-15 mm. Fruits indehiscent, red to scarlet [carmine to purple], pyriform or ellipsoid [to ovoid], [30-]40-90 × 25-50 mm, fleshy, low tuberculate, scaleless, spiny; pulp reddish, in some taxa sweet and edible; floral remnant persistent. Seeds black, broadly oblong, 1-4 × 0.8-2.5 mm, shiny or dull; testa rugose, pitted and/or with raised polygonal cells. x = 11.

Species ca. 20: arid regions, sw United States, nc and w Mexico southward to Chiapas.^[2]

Distribution

Range and Population

North America

Similar Species

Members of the genus Peniocereus:

There are approximately 36 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus: P. serpentinus pietatis · P. castellae (Peniocereus) · P. castellanosii · P. chiapensis · P. cuixmalensis (Pitahaya De Aguas) · P. diguetii · P. fosteranus · P. fosteranus var. multitepalum · P. fosteranus var. nizandensis · P. fosterianus (Peniocereus) · P. fosterianus var. multitepalum · P. greggii (Arizona Queen of the Night) · P. greggii (Engelm,) Britton and Rose var. greggii (Engelm.) Britton and (Desert Night-Blooming Cereus) · P. greggii (Engelm,) Britton and Rose var. transmontanus (Engelm.) Backeb. (Desert Night-Blooming Cereus) · P. greggii var. greggii · P. greggii var. transmontanus (Arizona Queen of the Night) · P. haackeanus · P. hirschtianus (Peniocereus) · P. johnstonii (Matraca) · P. lazaro-cardenasii (Peniocereus) · P. lazarocardenasii · P. macdougallii (Peniocereus) · P. maculatus (Peniocereus) · P. marianus (Peniocereus) · P. marnieranus · P. marnierianus · P. oaxacensis (Peniocereus) · P. occidentalis (Peniocereus) · P. papillosus · P. rosei (Peniocereus) · P. serpentinus (Junco) · P. striatus (Cardoncillo) · P. tepalcatepecanus (Peniocereus) · P. tomentosus · P. viperinus (Cardoncillo) · P. zopilotensis (Peniocereus)

Bibliography

• .Li Zhenyu. 1999. Cactaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 272-285.
• Anderson, E. F. (2001): The Cactus Family, Timber Press, Protland, Oregon
• Sánchez-M., H. 1973. El género Neoevansia Marshall, historia y revisión. Cact. Suc. Mex. 18: 13-27.
• Sánchez-M., H. 1974. Revisión del Género Peniocereus: (Las Cactáceas). Toluca.

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Notes

Contributors:

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2005. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [http://sn2000.taxonomy.nl/Taxonomicon/]. Access date: Nov 23, 2005
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2007. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed March 26, 2007.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed February 28, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.
• USDA, NRCS. 2005. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

• Arizona State University, International Institute for Species Exploration: Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium
• USDA PLANTS: USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers:

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 504197
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 291622
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:137446-1
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDCAC0V020
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: PEST11
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 54266

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.
2. Donald J. Pinkava "Peniocereus". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 96, 155, 174. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.