Peniocereus is a genus of vining cactus, comprising about 18 species, found from the southwestern United States and Mexico. They have a large underground tuber, thin and inconspicuous stems.
Its name comes from the prefix penio- (from the Latin penis, meaning ‘tail’) and Cereus, the large genus from which it was split.
Known as the desert night-blooming cereus, it also shares its common names of "night-blooming cereus" and "queen of the night" with many other similar cacti.
Taxonomy
Peniocereus was first described in 1905 by Alwin Berger as a subgenus of
Cereus with a single species,
Cereus greggii. This taxon was elevated to the genus level as
Peniocereus greggii by Britton and Rose in 1909. Later in 1974 an infrageneric classification was constructed based on morphological features that split
Peniocereus into two subgenera:
Peniocereus and
Pseudoacanthocereus. In 2005 a molecular phylogenetic study of the genus supported this split and showed that
Peniocereus is not monophyletic.
Species
Species include:
Peniocereus [[sensu stricto/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: se">
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<span class="us3003804241 us1353177739">Peniocereus [[sensu stricto">se">
Peniocereus [[sensu stricto
Molecular phylogeny supported the position of this subgenus within
Echinocereeae.
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| United States (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), Mexico |
| Mexico (Baja California Sur) |
| Mexico (Guerrero, Michoacan de Ocampo) |
| Mexico (Sinaloa, Sonora) |
| Sinaola |
| Mexico (Baja California, Sinaloa, and Sonora) and United States (Arizona) |
| Mexico (Morelos, Puebla) |
| Mexico (Guerrero) |
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Formerly included species
Nyctocereus
The 2005 molecular study showed that
P. serpentinus is in
Echinocereeae along with subgenus
Peniocereus, but suggests resurrecting the monotopic
Nyctocereus as it is sister to
Bergerocactus.
Subgenus Pseudoacanthocereus (Now Acanthocereus)
Molecular phylogeny and morphological evidence suggests this subgenus is more closely related to
Acanthocereus.
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| Peniocereus castellae |
| Peniocereus cuixmalensis |
| Peniocereus fosterianus |
| Peniocereus hirschtianus |
| Peniocereus macdougallii |
| Peniocereus maculatus |
| Peniocereus oaxacensis |
| Peniocereus rosei |
| Peniocereus tepalcatepecanus |
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