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Sclerocactus glaucus

(Uinta Basin Hookless Cactus)

Overview

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Threatened
Threat status

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Uinta Basin Hookless Cactus

Description

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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.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.

Genus Sclerocactus

Plants erect , usually unbranched, sometimes deep-seated in substrate in winter but never flat-topped. Roots diffuse . Stems unsegmented , pale to dark green or bluish green, ovoid , spheric, depressed-spheric, depressed hemispheric , cylindric , or elongate cylindric, 1-40(-45) × 1.8-15(-20) cm, occasionally glaucous; tubercles usually coalescent into ribs (rarely remaining as separate tubercles) ; ribs 10-17(-20), crests deeply notched above each areole, thus ribs tuberculate ; tubercles ± prominent on ribs; areoles 8-20 mm apart, elliptic to pyriform , with fertile portion as short adaxial prolongation confluent with spine cluster or connected to spine cluster by very broad groove , woolly ; areolar glands few or absent; cortex and pith highly mucilaginous . Spines 2-17(-29) ; radial spines 2-11(-18) per areole, usually white or gray, sometimes straw colored , brown, pink, purplish pink, or black, straight or curved ; central spines (0-) 1-6(-11) per areole, gray, white, yellow, straw colored, red, reddish brown, brown, pink to purplish pink or black, usually of 2-3 distinct types, 1 or more hooked (rarely none hooked), acicular or subulate , or both (ribbonlike and papery in S. papyracanthus), longest spines 7-15 mm. Flowers diurnal , borne at adaxial edge of areoles at or near stem apex or in short extension of spine-bearing areoles, campanulate or funnelform , 1-6.7 × 1-6(-7) cm; outer tepals with greenish lavender, reddish brown, yellowish brown, or purple midstripes, white, cream, gold, rose, pink, or purple margins , oblanceolate , 10-45 × 3-10 mm, margins entire or fimbriate; inner tepals erect to ascending white, cream, yellow, or pink to purplish, often with dark midstripes, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 15-50 × 4-12 mm, margins entire or fimbriate; ovary scaly , spineless; stigma lobes 5-12, pink, green, yellow, or creamy white, 1.5-3.5 mm. Fruits dehiscent along 2-4 irregular, short vertical slits above base, or through basal abscission pore , green, often turning tan, pink or red, cylindric to subspheric, 4.2-30 × 3.5-21(-25) mm, thin walled, fleshy , becoming dry at maturity, naked or with few broad, thin scales ; pulp greenish to white, scant; floral remnant persistent . Seeds brown or black, 1.5-3 × 1.9-4.5 mm, glossy or shiny; testa papillate (rarely furrowed ). x = 11.

Species 15: w United States.

There has been considerable controversy concerning generic circumscription of Sclerocactus. Some treatments include Ancistrocactus, Echinomastus, Glandulicactus, and Sclerocactus as a single genus; whereas others exclude those groups, in addition to Toumeya, from Sclerocactus. Molecular phylogenetic studies of chloroplast DNA sequences (J. M. Porter et al. 2000; R. Nyffeler 2002) support a close relationship among Ancistrocactus, Echinomastus, Toumeya, and Sclerocactus; only Toumeya is included with Sclerocactus here. Although morphologically cohesive, Echinomastus is inferred to be a paraphyletic group , with some species (i.e. , E. johnsonii) more closely related to Sclerocactus than to other members of Echinomastus. Ancistrocactus is sister to Echinomastus and Sclerocactus, providing merit to a broader circumscription of Sclerocactus. Glandulicactus and Pediocactus are only distantly related to this group, bolstering their exclusion from Sclerocactus.Kenneth D. Heil & J. Mark Porter "Sclerocactus". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 98, 99, 193, 197. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Physical Description

Species Sclerocactus glaucus

Stems usually unbranched, cylindric to elongate cylindric, 3-12(-28) × 4-9 cm; ribs (8-) 12-13(-15), tubercles evident on ribs. Spines slightly or not at all obscuring stems; radial spines (2-) 6-8(-12) per areole, white, 0-17 mm; central spines 1-3(-5) per areole, sometimes not greatly different from radial spines; abaxial central spines 0-2 per areole, brown, reddish brown to black, straight (rarely curved or hooked ), 12-26 × 0.8-1 mm; lateral central spines 2-4 per areole, similar to abaxial; adaxial central spine 1 per areole, usually white (rarely light brown), elliptic in cross section , 15-31 × 0.5-1.8 mm. Flowers fragrant, funnelform (rarely campanulate ), 3-5(-6) × (3-) 4-5 cm; outer tepals with greenish lavender midstripes and pink margins , oblanceolate , 25-30 × 4-6 mm; inner tepals pink (rarely pale pink), oblanceolate to lanceolate, 24-30(-35) × 4-6 mm; filaments green to white; anthers yellow. Fruits not regularly dehiscent , ovoid , barrel-shaped, 9-22(-30) × 8-12 mm, dry, with a few membranous scales , mostly near the apex. Seeds black, 1.5 × 2.5 mm; testa with rounded papillae. [source]

Sclerocactus glaucus is known only from Grand Junction area south to near Montrose, Colorado. The systematic and taxonomic confusion involving S. glaucus has been reviewed by K . D. Heil and J. M. Porter (1994); however, in their revision of Sclerocactus, S. wetlandicus was included within their circumscription of S. glaucus. Chloroplast DNA data (J. M. Porter et al. 2000) are consistent with F. Hochstätter s (1997) assertion that these represent two taxa. Even so, S. glaucus and S. wetlandicus are morphologically very similar and in the herbarium may be very difficult to discriminate without resorting to scanning electron microscopy (SEM) or a determination based upon geography. The surface of the epidermal cells of S. wetlandicus and S. brevispinus is flattened; this can be observed easily at 20×, but only with some difficulty at 10×. The cells are convex with a flattened apex, like a hill that was strip mined, lacking the conoidal projection; whereas, those of S. glaucus are rounded. [source]

Flowers: Bloom Period: April, May.

Habitat

Exposed, gravel-covered, clay hills , saltbush or sagebrush flats, or pinyon-juniper woodlands; of conservation concern; 1400-2000 m (Ref. 88450).

Found scattered on gravely or rocky soils on hills, riverside and mesas of varying exposures on Salt-Desert/Grassland sites, occasionally on clayey plains . It is more abundant on south-facing exposures, and on slopes to about 5-30 percent grade ; Elevation ranges from 1,300 to 1,600 meters.

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Echinocactus glaucus (J.A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) L. Benson
  2. Echinocactus glaucus K. Schumann, Gesamtbeschr. Kakt., 438. 1898
  3. Echinocactus subglacus
  4. Echinocactus whipplei glaucus
  5. Ferocactus glaucus (K. Schumann) N. P. Taylor
  6. Pediocactus glaucus (J.A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) Arp
  7. Pediocactus glaucus (K. Schumann) Arp
  8. Sclerocactus franklinii
  9. Sclerocactus glaucus (J. A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) L. Benson
  10. Sclerocactus whipplei (Engelmann & J. M. Bigelow) Britton & Rose var. glaucus (K. Schumann) S. L. Welsh
  11. Sclerocactus whipplei var. glaucus (J.A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) Welsh

Notes

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

Place of publication : Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 38:53. 1966

Name verified on 06-Dec-1993 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 05-Mar-2003

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Sclerocactus

There are approximately 65 species in this genus:

S. blainei (Blain's Fishook Cactus) · S. brevihamatus tobuschi · S. brevihamatus tobuschii (Shorthook Fishhook Cactus) · S. brevispinus (Shortspine Fishhook Cactus) · S. cloverae · S. cloveriae (Clover's Fishhook Cactus) · S. cloveriae brackii · S. cloveriae cloveriae · S. contortus (Canyonlands Fishhook Cactus) · S. erectocentrus (Redspine Fishhook Cactus) · S. glaucus (Uinta Basin Hookless Cactus) · S. havasupaiensis · S. havasupaiensis var. roseus · S. heilii · S. intertextus (Chihuahua Pineapple Cactus) · S. intertextus var. dasyacanthus · S. intertextus var. intertextus · S. johnsonii (Johnson Barrel Cactus) · S. mariposensis (Lloyd's Fishhook Cactus) · S. mesae-verdae (Mesa Verde Cactus) · S. nyensis (Nye County Fishhook Cactus) · S. papyracanthus (Paper-Spine Fish-Hook Cactus) · S. papyracanthus var. Curly Spines · S. parviflorus (Devil's-Claw Cactus) · S. parviflorus f. macrospermus · S. parviflorus f. terrae-canyonae · S. parviflorus f. variiflorus · S. parviflorus havasupaiensis · S. parviflorus macrospermus · S. parviflorus terrae-canyonae · S. parviflorus variiflorus · S. polyancistrus (Hermit Cactus) · S. pubispinus (Great Basin Fishhook Cactus) · S. scheeri (Fish-Hook Cactus) · S. scheerii · S. schleseri · S. schlesseri (Schlesser's Fishhook Cactus) · S. sheeri (Tobusch Fishhook Cactus) · S. spinosior (Desert Valley Fish-Hook Cactus) · S. spinosior blainei · S. spinosior var. blainei · S. spinosior var. schleseri · S. spinosior var. schlesseri · S. terrae-canyonae (Longspine Fishhook Cactus) · S. uncinatus (Chihuahuan Fishhook Cactus) · S. uncinatus crassihamatus · S. uncinatus var. crassihamatus · S. uncinatus var. uncinatus · S. uncinatus var. wrightii (Chihuahuan Fishhook Cactus) · S. unguispinus · S. unguispinus var. durangensis · S. warnockii (Warnock's Fishhook Cactus) · S. wetlandicus · S. wetlandicus ilseae · S. wetlandicus var. ilseae · S. whipplei (Whipple Fishhook Cactus) · S. whipplei (Engelm. & Bigelow) Britton & Rose var. whipplei (Engelm. & Bige · S. whipplei busekii · S. whipplei heilii · S. whipplei var. ilseae · S. whipplei var. pygmaeus · S. whipplei var. reevesii · S. whipplei var. whipplei · S. wrightiae (Wright Fishhook Cactus) · S. wrightii

Bibliography

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More Info

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 01, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

Last Revised: 2008-10-01