Browningia candelaris

Browningia candelaris is a species of cactus from northern Chile and southern Peru. It has a distinctive growth habit, with a straight spiny trunk topped by more-or-less spineless thinner branches. In some places, the long-term survival of local populations may be threatened by grazing, which destroys seedlings.[2]

Browningia candelaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Genus: Browningia
Species:
B. candelaris
Binomial name
Browningia candelaris

Description

Browningia candelaris has a tree-like habit of growth, reaching a height of up to 6 m (20 ft). When mature, it has a distinct unbranched trunk with a diameter of up to 50 cm (20 in), which is densely covered with straight brown spines, 6–15 cm (2.4–5.9 in) long. Above the trunk the plant has a crown of branching thinner stems, which may be entirely spineless or bear spines reduced to a few bristles. All the stems have about 50 ribs.[2]

The white flowers are tubular, 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in) long and are followed by fleshy fruits, yellow when ripe and up to 7 cm (2.8 in) long. The fruits are edible.[2]

Systematics

The species was first described as Cereus candelaris in 1833 by the German botanist Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen.[3] In 1920, Britton and Rose placed it in the genus Browningia.[2] Studies published from 2002 onwards using the methods of molecular phylogenetics suggest that the genus Browningia is polyphyletic (i.e. the genus is not a natural group descended from their most recent common ancestor). B. candelaris and B. hertlingiana are related to some species of Rebutia, whereas other species of Browningia are related to genera such as Pachycereus.[4]

References
  1. "Browningia candelaris", Tropicos, Missouri Botanical Garden, 2012, retrieved 2012-04-21
  2. Anderson, Edward F. (2001), The Cactus Family, Pentland, Oregon: Timber Press, ISBN 978-0-88192-498-5, pp. 134–135
  3. Meyen, J. (1833), "Einiges über die schönen Cactus-Arten auf der Westküste von Südamerika", Allgemeine Gartenzeitung (in German), 1 (27): 211, retrieved 2012-04-21
  4. Hernández-Hernández, Tania; Hernández, Héctor M.; De-Nova, J. Arturo; Puente, Raul; Eguiarte, Luis E. & Magallón, Susana (2011), "Phylogenetic relationships and evolution of growth form in Cactaceae (Caryophyllales, Eudicotyledoneae)", American Journal of Botany, 98 (1): 44–61, doi:10.3732/ajb.1000129, PMID 21613084
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