Cactus missouriensis (Sweet) Kuntze , A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
37. Cactus missouriensis (Sweet) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 259 (1891).
Cactus mamillaris Nutt. Gen. i. 295 (1818), not Linn. (1753).
Mamillaria missouriensis Sweet, Hort. Brit. 171 (1827).
Mamillaria simplex Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 553 (1840).
Mamillaria nuttallii Engelm. Pl. Fendl. 49 (1849).
Mamillaria notesteinii Britton, Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, xviii,
367 (1891).
Globose, 3.5 cm. in diameter, simple or nearly so: tubercles
ovate-cylindrical, 12 to 14 mm. long, slightly grooved: radial
spines 13 to 17, straight, whitish, setaceous, somewhat unequal,
8 to 10 mm. long; central spine more robust, straight and
porrect, puberulent, 10 to 12 mm. long, often wanting: flowers
about 2.5 cm. long, yellow or reddish: stigmas 2 to 5: fruit
globose, scarlet, 6 to 8 mm. in diameter: seeds globose, black
and pitted, 0.8 to 1.1 mm. in diameter. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound.
t. 74., f. 6, seeds.) Type unknown.
High prairies of the Upper Missouri, from Montana to South Dakota
and southward through western Nebraska to western Kansas and the
eastern slopes of the mountains of Colorado. Fl. May.
Specimens examined: Montana (Notestein of 1893): National Park
(Tweedy 423): South Dakota, (collector unknown, in 1847, 1848,
1853): Nebraska (Hayden of 1855).
Cactus missouriensis (Sweet) Kuntze var. similis (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
38. Cactus missouriensis similis (Engelm.).
Mamillaria similis Engelm. Pl. Lindh. 246 (1845).
Mamillaria nuttallii caespitosa Engelm. Syn. Cact. 265 (1856).
Mamillaria missouriensis caespitosa Watson, Bibl. Index,
403 (1878).
Cespitose, with 12 to 15 puberulent radial spines, the central
very often wanting, larger flowers (2.5 to 5 cm. long), fruit and
seeds (1.6 to 2.2 mm. in diameter), and 5 stigmas. (Ill. Cact.
Mex. Bound. t. 74. f 7, seeds) Type, Lindheimer, of 1845 (?) in
Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.
From the Kansas River, Kansas, and eastern Colorado, southward
through Oklahoma to the San Antonio River, Texas.
Specimens examined: Colorado (Greene of 1870): Kansas (Carleton
551 of 1891, from Kingman County, distributed as Mamillaria
dasyacantha): Oklahoma (Carleton 120 of 1891): Texas (Lindheimer
of 1845, 1850; Wright of 1850; Reverchon 725): also specimens
cultivated in Goebel's Garden in 1846; and in St. Louis in 1846,
1847, 1851.
The cespitose masses are often a foot broad.
Cactus missouriensis (Sweet) Kuntze var. robustior (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
39. Cactus missouriensis robustior (Engelm.).
Mamillaria similis robustior Engelm. Pl. Lindh. 200 (1850).
Mamillaria nuttallii robustior Engelm. and Bigel. Pacif. R.
Rep. iv. 28 (1856).
Mamillaria missouriensis robustior Watson, Bibl. Index,
440 (1878).
Almost simple, with longer aid looser tubercles, 10 to 12 stouter
radial spines (6 to 16 mm. long), a single stout central, larger
flowers, and 7 or 8 stigmas. Type, Lindheimer of 1845 in Herb.
Mo. Bot. Gard.
From southeastern Colorado and the Canadian River (Oklahoma and
Indian Territory), to the Colorado River of Texas.
Specimens examined: Texas (Lindheimer of 1845, 1846; Bigelow of
1853): also specimens cultivated in St. Louis in 1847.
In Bigelow's specimens the central spine is mostly lacking.
Cactus dasyacanthus (Engelm.) Kuntze , A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
51. Cactus dasyacanthus (Engelm.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 259 (1891).
Mamillaria dasyacantha Engelm. Syn. Cact. 268 (1856).
Subglobose, 3.5 to 6.5 cm. high, simple: tubercles slender and
terete, spreading, lightly grooved even to the base, 8 to 10 mm,
long: radial spines 30 to 50, mostly in two series, straight and
loosely spreading, the exterior ones (25 to 35) capillary and
white, 6 to 18 mm. long, the interior ones (7 to 13) stiffer
(setaceous), longer and darker and black-tipped; the central
spine straight and porrect, 12 to 20 mm. long, often wanting:
flowers small, red: fruit ovate, small (8 to 10 mm. long?): seeds
globose-angled, almost black, pitted, 0.8 to 1.2 mm. long (Ill.
Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 12. figs. 17-22) Type, Wright 110 in Herb.
Mo. Bot Gard.
From Eagle Pass, Texas, westward to El Paso and southern New
Mexico, and southward into Chihuahua.
Specimens examined: Texas (Wright 110 of 1852): New Mexico (Vasey
of 1881; Mearns of 1892, in Big Hatchet Mountains) Chihuahua
(Pringle 251 of 1885, in part).
Pringle 251 as distributed to Nat. Herb. is C. tuberculosus.
Cactus tuberculosus (Engelm.) Kuntze , A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
56. Cactus tuberculosus (Engelm.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 261
(1891).
Mamillaria strobiliformis Scheer in Salm Cact. Hort. Dyck. 104
(1850), not Muhlenpf. (1848), nor Engelm. (1848).
Mamillaria tuberculosa Engelm. Syn. Cact. 268 (1856).
Ovate to cylindrical, 5 to 15 cm. high, 2.5 to 5 cm. in diameter,
simple or branching at base: tubercles short-ovate from a broad
base, 5 to 6 mm. long, deeply grooved, crowded and imbricate, at
length covering the older parts as naked and gray corky
protuberances: radial spines 20 to 30, slender but stiff, white,
radiant and interwoven with adjacent clusters, 4 to 8 mm. long
(uppermost rarely 10 to 12 mm.); central spines 5 to 9, stouter,
purplish above, the upper ones longer, erect, 10 to 14 mm. long
(sometimes even 16 to 18 mm.), the lower one shorter (6 to 8
mm.), stout, porrect or deflexed: flowers about 2.5 cm. in
diameter, pale purple: fruit oval, elongated (sometimes almost
cylindric), red, about 18 mm. long: seeds subglobose, brown and
pitted, very small (0.8 to 1.2 mm. long). (Ill. Cact. Mex.
Bound. t. 12. figs. 1-16) Type of Scheer's strobiliformis is
unknown; but the specimens of Prince Salm-Dyck in Herb. Mo. Bot.
Gard. are marked "authentic" by Dr. Engelmann. The Wright
specimens in the same Herb, represent the type of M tuberculosa
Engelm.
From the mountains of extreme southwestern Texas (common west of
Devil's River), southward into Chihuahua and Coahuila. Fl.
May-June.
Specimens examined: Texas (Wright 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 29,
30,31,32, 535, of 1849 and 1852; Bigelow of 1852; Engelmann, with
no number or date; Evans of 1891): Chihuahua (Pringle 250, 251 in
part, and 258 of 1885): Coahuila (Palmer of 1880): also specimens
from Coll. Salm. Dyck in 1857; also growing in Mo Bot. Gard. 1893
(specimens, sent by G. G. Briggs in 1892 from El Paso, Texas.
The identification of Engelmann's tuberculosa with Scheer's
strobiliformis was made by Dr. Engelmann himself upon an
examination of Scheer's type. The use of the specific name
tuberculosa is necessitated by the law of homonyms, as
strobiliformis had been used twice already before it was taken up
by Scheer. M. strobiliformis Muhlenpf. is C. scolymoides
sulcatus; and M. strobiliformis Engelm. is C. conoideus.
Cactus viviparus Nutt. , A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
57. Cactus viviparus Nutt. in Fraser's Cat. (1813).
Mamillaria vivipara Haw. Syn. Succ. Suppl. 72 (1819).
Low and depressed-globose, usually proliferous and cespitose
(forming large masses), but sometimes simple: tubercles terete
and loose, lightly grooved: radial spines 12 to 20, stiff and
white, often dark-tipped, 6 to 8 mm. long; central spines usually
4 (sometimes less, often more, even as many as 8), brownish, 8 to
12 mm. long, 3 spreading upwards, the lowest stouter and shorter
and deflexed: flowers about 3.5 cm. long (large for the size of
the plant) and even broader when expanded, bright purple: stigmas
pointed with a short mucro: fruit oval, pale green, juicy, 12 to
18 mm. long: seeds yellowish-brown, obliquely obovate and curved
about the small hilum, 1.4 to 1.6 mm. long). (Ill. Cact. Mex.
Bound. t. 74. fig. 3, seeds) Type unknown.
On the northwestern plains, from the boundary provinces of
British America (western Manitoba, Assiniboia and Alberta), and
throughout the Upper Missouri region, southward through western
Nebraska to western Kansas and to the eastern foothills of
central Colorado. It is also mentioned by Howell (Cat. of
Oregon, Washington and Idaho plants), as occurring beyond the
Rocky Mountain divide in Idaho and Washington, which is probable,
but no specimens have been seen.
Specimens examined: Montana (Hayden, nos. 1854, 1855; Vernon
Bailey of 1890, near Bridger): Colorado (Hayden of 1869):
Nebraska (Rydberg 1379 of 1893, Thomas Co.): also specimens
cultivated in St. Louis in 1869; also growing in Mo. Bot. Gard.
1893.
It seems best to keep this northwestern form specifically
separate from that large assemblage of southern forms that have
been commonly referred to it. The forms referred to this species
from western Kansas (Smyth's check list) have not been examined,
and they may represent intermediate forms, inclining to simple
habit and ovate form, as in the Colorado forms. The southern
type (C. radiosus) is distinguished from C. viviparus not only by
its very different range, but also by its ovate to cylindrical
form, simple habit, more numerous (12 to 40) and longer (6 to 22
mm.) radial spines, usually more numerous (3 to 14) central
spines in which the upper are more robust than the lower, porrect
lower central, obtuse stigmas, and brown obovate straight seeds.
Cactus radiosus (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
58. Cactus radiosus (Engelm.).
Mamillaria vivipara Engelm. Pl. Fendl. 49 (1849), not Haw.
(1819).
Mamillaria radiosa Engelm. Pl. Lindh. 196 (1850).
Mamillaria vivipara radiosa texana Engelm. Syn. Cact. 269
(1856).
Ovate or cylindrical, 5 to 12.5 cm. high and about 5 cm. in
diameter, simple or sparingly proliferous: tubercles terete, more
or less grooved above, 8 to 12 mm. long: radial spines 20 to 30,
straight, slender, with with dusky apex, very unequal, 6 to 8 mm
long; central spines 4 or 5, stouter, yellowish or tawny, 8 to 12
mm. long, the upper ones the longer and more robust, the lowest
one shorter and porrect: flowers 3.5 to 5.5 cm. long, about the
same diameter when fully open, violet to dark purple: stigmas 7
to 9, obtuse: fruit oval and green: seeds yellowish or brown,
obovate, pitted, fully 2 mm, long. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound. t.
74, fig.5, seeds) Type, Lindheimer of 1846 in Herb. Mo. Bot.
Gard.
Extending across southern Texas, from the Guadalupe to El Paso.
thence into contiguous New Mexico and across the Rio Grande near
Juarez (northern Chihuahua). Fl. May-June.
Specimens examined: Texas (Lindheimer of 1846): New Mexico
(Bigelow of 1855): Chihuahua, near Juarez (Evans of 1891): also
specimens cultivated from the type in St. Louis in 1846.
Attention has been called under C. viviparus to the characters
that distinguish from C. radiosus The characters there given for
the latter species apply to to the whole group of included forms.
The type of the species is the var. Texana of Engelmann's Syn.
Cact. and Mex. Bound., which is characterized in the above.
description.
Cactus radiosus (Engelm.) Coulter var. neo-mexicanus (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
59. Cactus radiosus neo-mexicanus (Engelm.).
Mamillaria vivipara radiosa neo-mexicana Engelm. Syn. Cact.
269 (1856).
Generally lower (3.5 to 10 cm.) and subglobose to ovate or even
sub-cylindrical, branching at base or simple, with more numerous
(12 to 40) radial spines, more numerous (3 to 12) and purplish
centrals, and smaller seeds. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 74. fig.
4, seeds) Type, presumably the Wright, Bigelow, and Schott
specimens from western Texas, New Mexico, and Sonora, all in
Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.
From southern Utah, central Colorado, and western Kansas,
southward through western Texas, New Mexico and Arizona into
Chihuahua and Sonora.
Specimens examined: Kansas (Carleton 530 of 1891, in Meade
County): Oklahoma (Carleton 233 of 1891): Colorado (Hall and
Harbour of 1862; Brandegee 645 of 1873; Hicks of 1890): Utah
(Siler of 1870): New Mexico (Wislizenus of 1846; Fendler 244,
271, of 1847: Wright 298; Bigelow of 1853; G. R. Vasey of 1881):
Texas (Wright of 1849, 1851, 1852; Bigelow of 1853): Arizona
(Rothrock, with no number or date): Sonora (Schott of 1855):
Chihuahua (Evans of 1891, near Juarez).
It is through this variety that C. radiosus approaches most
nearly to C. viviparus, in the forms with few radials and
centrals, but the specific characters seem to hold. This is the
Mamillaria vivipara of the Syn Fl. Colorado (Porter and Coulter).
Cactus radiosus (Engelm.) Coulter var. arizonicus (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
60. Cactus radiosus arizonicus (Engelm.).
Mamillaria arizonica Engelm Bot. Calif. i. 244 (1876).
A robust globose or ovate simple form (7.5 to 10 cm. in
diameter), with long (12 to 25 mm.) deeply-grooved tubercles, 15
to 20 long (10 to 30 mm.) rigid whitish radial spines, and 3 to 6
centrals deep brown above. Type, the specimens of Cous, Palmer,
Bischoff and Johnson, all in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.
Sandy and rocky soil from southern Utah through northern and
western Arizona to southern California.
Specimens examined: Arizona (Cous of 1865; Cous & Palmer of 1865
and 1872; Palmer of 1869; Bischoff of 1871; Miller of 1881; Rusby
617 of 1853; Pringle of 1884): Utah (Johnson of 1871, 1872, 1874;
Parry of 1875, 1877): California (Parish of 1880): also specimens
cultivated in Mo. Bot. Gard. in 1881; and in Meehan's Gard. in
1882.
Cactus radiosus (Engelm.) Coulter var. deserti (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
61. Cactus radiosus deserti (Engelm.).
Mamillaria deserti Engelm. Bot. Calif. ii. 449 (1880).
Subglobose or oval (5 to 10 cm. high) and simple, with deeply
grooved tubercles (slender and about 12 mm. long), 25 to 30
rather long (10 to 16 mm.) grayish white radial spines (the
larger with reddish tips), 3 or 4 shorter and stouter centrals
with 5 or 6 intermediate ones above, small (2.5 cm. long)
straw-colored flowers (becoming purplish-tipped), 5 or 6 stigmas,
and obliquely obovate curved seeds. Type, Parish 433 in Herb.
Mo. Bot. Gard.
In the mountains bordering the deserts of southeastern California
(San Bernardino County) and extending to central Nevada (Reese
River Valley).
Specimens examined: California (Parish 453 of 1880, also of 1882;
Bailey of 1890): Nevada, Lincoln County (Coville & Funston of
1891, Death Valley Expedition): also specimens cultivated in
Meehan's Gard. in 1882.
The smaller straw-colored flowers alone suggest the propriety of
keeping this form specifically distinct, but even in size and
color there is an occasional tendency toward the specific
character. The obliquely obovate curved seeds resemble those of
C. viviparus. The plant densely covered with stout ashy-gray
interlocking spines is easily recognized.
Cactus radiosus (Engelm.) Coulter var. chloranthus (Engelm.) John M. Coulter comb. nov., A Preliminary Revision of the North American Species of Cactus, Anhalonium, and Lophophora, 1894
Description:
62. Cactus radiosus chloranthus (Engelm.).
Mamillaria chlorantha Engelm. Wheeler's Rep. 127 (1878).
Oval to cylindrical (7.5 cm. in diameter, sometimes 20 to 22.5
cm. high), with 20 to 25 gray radial spines almost in two series,
6 to 9 stouter reddish or brownish-tipped centrals (12 to 25 mm.
long), and yellowish or greenish-yellow flowers 3.5 cm. long and
wide. Type: Southern Utah specimens of both Parry and Johnson
occur in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard., but they are all referred to C.
radiosus arizonicus, and I can find no trace of any specimens of
C. radiosus chloranthus in the Engelmann collection.
Southern Utah, east of St. George (Parry; Johnson).
The plant is evidently near C. radiosus deserti, of which variety
it seems to be the Utah representative, but in the absence not
only of the type, but even of authentic specimens, the two are
kept separate, a thing fully justified by the description.
© 2002-2003 Jan Mynar
Last modified May 1, 2003