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The Ever-Changing Landscape of Cactus Systematics

1986; Missouri Botanical Garden; Volume: 73; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2399192

2162-4372

Arthur C. Gibson, Kevin C. Spencer, Renu Bajaj, Jerry L. McLaughlin,

Chemical synthesis and alkaloids

cactus names, "Cereus Peruanus" and "Ficus In-names, to emphasize some major differences in dica,'' appeared on a list of British plants by the cacti that were already known.At present, Gerard (1599).The earliest authentic report of the species described by Linnaeus and Miller are Melocactus communis Link & Otto has been classified in ten or more genera, belonging to credited to Clusius in Holland, who in 1605 was three different subfamilies; since Linnaeus about brought a cultivated specimen from the island 11,000 Latin binomials and an additional 400 of Maio in the Cape Verde Islands near West generic names have been published for cacti.Re-Africa, where it was first spotted by Dutch sea-grettably, most published cactus binomials are men in 1601 (Heniger, 1973).Ho-w Melocactus, illegitimate, invalid, or incorrect, because presa New World genus, became established on Maio ent-day cactus systematists recognize only 1,400is a matter of speculation, but the Dutch were 1,700 valid species and 70-140 genera.Moreprobably the ones who introduced this cactus over, in 1930, when A/^mm/V/ar/^ Haworth was from Curasao, presumably in the mid or late conserved, the name Cactus L. was declared a 1500s.Bauhin and Cherler (1619; Bauhin, 1623; nomen rejiciendum because the lectotype of the Rowley, 1976) mentioned the presence of species family, C. mammillaris L., became a species of of ''Cereus" and *Ticus Indica" in European gar-Mammillaria (Hunt, 1967; Shaw, 1976; Howard dens.Herbarium vouchers of Opuntia from the & Touw, 1981).Rejecting Cactus enabled tax-1660s occur in the bound herbarium (//(7^rw5 5'/c-onomists to resolve many nomenclatural probcus, L) of Caymans, a Leiden pharmacist, who lems and to reduce the ambiguity stemming from documented the plants in Leiden's Hortus Bo-the inconsistent definitions and usage of Cactus tanicus, the oldest botanical garden in The Neth-by various authors.erlands.Many cactus species, including seven Cacti described before 1 820 were mostly species of cereoids, were described from gardens species that were collected in the West Indies in The Netherlands by Hermann (1687, 1698), and along the eastern coastline ofNorth and South and Boerhaave (1720) showed an engraving of America, such as from Brazil, Venezuela, Mexthe first flowering specimen (1 August 1691) of ico, Florida, and Virginia.Some of the early dis-"Cereusperuvianus" in the Leiden botanical gar-coveries were epiphytes, which were so remarkden.Whatever role other countries had in intro-able in vegetative appearance and diversity that ducing cacti to Europe is still unstudied, but cer-new generic names were proposed for the differtainly Dutch horticulturists were central in ent forms, e.g., //(3no/(3 Adanson (1763), Ca55j^/a promoting the early interest in cactus cultivation, J. Miller (1771), Rhipsalis Caertner ( 1 788), Epiwhich soon became an avid passion of many phyllum Haworth (1812), Phyllocactus Link (1831), and Lepismium Pfeiffer (1835).Taxonomic knowledge of Cactaceae acceler-gardeners.The Dutch influence on cactus taxonomy extended, of course, to Linnaeus, who studied plants ated rapidly when botanical exploration penein The Netherlands.In Hortus Cliffbrtianus, trated the arid and semiarid regions of the New which is a garden catalogue of the estate of Dr. World.New genera were proposed for low growth Ceorge Clifford near Haarlem, Linnaeus (1737) forms of Mexico: Mammillaria Haworth (1812), mentioned 16 species in the genus Cactus and Echinocactus Link & Otto (1827), Ariocarpus one species, which has large leaves, in the genus Scheidweiler (1838), Astrophytum Lemaire Pereskia.Pereskia, a name borrowed from the ( 1 839), £c/z/nq/b55w/c?cac/W5Lawrence (1841), and botanical illustrator Charles Plumier, honored Pelecyphora Ehrenberg (1843).Also, Pfeiffer Nicolas Claude Fabri, seigneur de Peiresc, who (1838) proposed Cephalocereus as the first segwas a correspondent friend of Clusius, However, regate genus of Cereus, based on the type, Cactus when Linnaeus (1753) published Species Plan-senilis Haw., an arborescent, solitary columnar tarum, he classified all cacti in a single genus cactus from Hidalgo, Mexico.Low growth forms Cactus, with 22 species.Assigned to this taxon collected in South America and the West Indies were platyopuntias, columnar cacti, epiphytes, were assigned to other new genera: Melocactus barrel cacti, dwarf growth forms, and the leaf-Link & Otto (1 827), Ec/z/wo/^^/^-Zuccarini (1837), bearing cacti.Subsequently, Miller (1754)^ rec-Discocactus Ff^i^^v {\'&31),?ir\d.Gymnocalycium ognized three additional genera, Cereus, Opun-Pfeiffer (1845).tia, and Pereskia, based on the earlier common George Engelmann entered the field of cactus ' Literature citations for all generic names mentioned in the following pages can be found in Hunt (1967).