Echinocactus
Link & Otto (1827)
Etymology
| 🌵 Author(s) | Christoph Friedrich OttoJohann Heinrich Friedrich Link |
| 🌵 Type | Echinocactus platyacanthus |
Latin ĕchīnus ‘sea-urchin, hedgehog’ + Cactus. For the spiny, round plant body, but primarily an abbreviation of the pre-Linnaean name Echinomelocactus (‘hedgehog melon-thistle’). Link and Otto split this genus, whose name was abbreviated to Cactus by Linnaeus, into Echinocactus and Melocactus.
Echinocactus is sometimes abbreviated as Ectus or Etus.
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2023 Jul 14). Echinocactus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/Echinocactus