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• Physical Description
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Taxonomy

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 x:

When placed before a specific epithet, indicates the taxon is of known hybrid origin. The basic number of chromosomes in a polyploid series.

Similar Species

Members of the genus x:

There are approximately 328 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: x. Ackersteinia dodsonii · x. Aeonichryson aizoides · x. Aeoniogreenovia lambii · x. Aglaonaria robertsii · x. Agroelymus adamsii · x. Agroelymus bergrothii · x. Agroelymus bowdenii · x. Agroelymus cayouetteorum · x. Agroelymus colvillensis · x. Agroelymus dorei · x. Agroelymus hirtiflorus · x. Agroelymus hodgsonii · x. Agroelymus hultenii · x. Agroelymus jamesensis · x. Agroelymus mossii · x. Agroelymus ontariensis · x. Agroelymus palmerensis · x. Agroelymus pamiricus · x. Agroelymus piettei · x. Agroelymus strictus · x. Agroelymus turneri · x. Agroelymus ungavensis · x. Alcalthaea suffrutescens · x. aleuticus (Aleutian Wildrye) · x. Alismodorus muretii · x. Amarcrinum memoria-corsii (Amarcrinum) · x. Amarine tubergenii · x. Amarygia bidwellii · x. Amarygia parkeri · x. Anacamptorchis duquesnei · x. Anacamptorchis durandii · x. Anacamptorchis fallax. · x. Anacamptorchis guetroti · x. Anacamptorchis kelleri · x. Anacamptorchis klingei · x. Anacamptorchis la-niccae · x. Anacamptorchis laniccae · x. Anacamptorchis laniccae nothosubsp. galloprovinciana · x. Anacamptorchis larzacensis · x. Anacamptorchis lesbiensis · x. Anacamptorchis simorrensis · x. Anacamptorchis simorrensis nothovar. ticinensis · x. Anacamptorchis ticinensis · x. Anacamptorchis vanlookenii · x. Anacamptorchis weberi · x. Anoectomaria dominii · x. Aporberocereus innesii · x. arcuatum (Arcuate Barley) · x. aristatus (Purple Wildrye) · x. Asplenicystopteris blindii · x. Asplenicystopteris payotii · x. Asplenoceterach badense · x. Asplenoceterach barrancense · x. Asplenoceterach newmanii · x. Asplenophyllitis claphamii · x. Asplenophyllitis confluens · x. Asplenophyllitis hendersonii · x. Asplenophyllitis jacksonii · x. Asplenophyllitis kummerlei · x. Asplenophyllitis lobata · x. Asplenophyllitis microdon · x. Asplenosorus akaishiensis · x. Asplenosorus boydstoniae · x. Asplenosorus castaneoviridis · x. Asplenosorus ebenoides · x. Asplenosorus gravesii · x. Asplenosorus herb-wagneri · x. Asplenosorus inex.pectatus · x. Asplenosorus kentuckiensis · x. Asplenosorus kitazawae · x. Asplenosorus pinnatifidus · x. Asplenosorus shawneensis · x. Asplenosorus tosaensis · x. Asplenosorus trudellii · x. Astroworthia bicarinata · x. Astroworthia bicarinata nm. skinneri · x. Astroworthia skinneri · x. Attabignya minarum · x. Bolboschoenoplectus mariqueter · x. Bonstedtia lilacina · x. Bonstedtia youngiana · x. Borkersia soniae · x. Brachystemon nolae-carriae · x. braunii (Braun's Festulolium) · x. Brunsdonna parkeri · x. Brunserine tubergenii · x. Butyagrus nabonnandii · x. caduca (Mandan Ricegrass) · x. Calicharis butcheri · x. Carapelia tarantuloides · x. carduus font-queri · x. Carruanthophyllum hybridum · x. carthamus battandieri · x. carthamus doumerguei · x. carthamus faurei · x. centaurea bourlieri · x. centaurea impura · x. centaurea serresii · x. Ceterophyllitis hybrida · x. Chamaebivia francescae

Bibliography

• .Li Zhenyu. 1999. Cactaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 272-285.

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Notes

Identifiers:

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3827742

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.