| 🌵 Author(s) | Michael Scheidweiler | 🌵 Published in | Bull. Acad. Roy. Sci. Bruxelles 5(8): 491 (1838) |
| 🌵 Type | Ariocarpus retusus |
Not explained by Scheidweiler. The second part of the name is Greek karpos ‘fruit’. Scheidweiler described the fruit of Ariocarpus retusus as a “turbinate unilocular berry, hollow, polyspermous” (“bacca turbinata unilocaris, vacua, polysperma”). The first part is variously explained as: Greek aria ‘whitebeam (Sorbus aria)’ (Eggli & Newton, Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names: 15. 2004) or the genus Aria (Britton & Rose, Cactaceae 3: 80. 1922) (for the supposed similarity of the berries); Greek aria ‘a species of oak (Quercus)’ (for the indehiscent fruit) (Anderson, Cactus Family: 109. 2001); a misspelling of Greek erion ‘wool’ (for the fruits that arise from the woolly crown) (Lemaire, Cact. Gen. Sp. Nov.: 110. 1839); Latin ārēre ‘to be dry’ (Mottram, Cactician 4: 24. 2014); Latin aria(?), supposedly meaning ‘pear’ (for the shape of the fruit) (Powell & Weedin, Cacti Trans-Pecos: 317. 2004).
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2023 Dec 09). Ariocarpus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/Ariocarpus