Genus Ortegocactus

History of Genus   -   Description of Genus   -   Division of Genus   -   Taxonomy and Morphology

History of Genus

The genus was described as monotypic in 1961 by W. P. Alexander. Because of its distinct difference from other taxa, it has had a rather varied history and has passed through several other species, but is still considered a separate genus by the vast majority of botanists.

In 1974, L. Kladiwa (in Krainz, 1974) transferred the plant O. macdougallii to the genus Neobesseya. The reason for the combination was that all its plant parts show the characteristic features of this genus. The absence of a groove on the tubercles was seen as the next (higher) stage of development within the genus Neobesseya. The fact that all the plant parts of N. macdougallii are the same as those of the genus Neobesseya justified the inclusion of Ortegocactus Alexander in the genus Neobesseya, as its subgenus.

D. R. Hunt (1978) transferred the genus Neobesseya to the genus Escobaria. However, he did not take Kladiwa's combination into account. Therefore, in 1981, John and Riha created a new subgenus Ortegocactus in their concept of the genus Escobaria. The rationale for this combination was that the seeds and the partial presence of a groove on the tubercles surface indicated a close relationship to the genus Escobaria and that no significant characters, except for the development and structure of the fruit, contradicted this move (fruit maturation occurs in the body of the plant, but similar analogies are known from other genera, according to the authors).

The last combination of the taxon O. macdougallii took place in 2021, when P. B. Breslin and L. C. Majure transferred it to the genus Cochemiea based on molecular phylogenetic analyses of the clade Mammilloid.

 

Description of Genus

The original description (1961)