Pilosocereus

Pilosocereus Byles & G.D.Rowley ()
🌵 Author(s)

🌵 Published in Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 19: 66 (1957)
Etymology

Latin pilōsus ‘hairy’ + Cereus, the name of a genus of columnar cacti and a designation for columnar cacti in general. A replacement name for Pilocereus intended to be “as similar as possible” (Byles & Rowley in Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 17: 32. 1955) to that name.

Byles & Rowley (l.c.) suggested Pilosocereus and Pilatocereus (Latin pĭlātus ‘grown hairy, armed with javelins’) as possible replacement names for Pilocereus. Curt Backeberg apparently preferred Pilosocereus: “Mr. C. Backeberg has requested us to make valid the new name Pilosocereus for it in time for inclusion in his new monograph of the Family” (Byles & Rowley in Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 19: 66. 1957).

Note that the first part of Pilocereus is not Latin pĭlus ‘hair’, but Greek pilos ‘woolen cap’.


How to cite

Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2023 Jul 17). Pilosocereus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/Pilosocereus

Pronunciation
[py-loss-oh-SER-ee-us]

Ross Bayton (2019): The Garderner's Botanical

[Pilosocéreus]

Helmut Genaust (1996): Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen, 3. Auflage

“Botanical Latin is essentially a written language, but the scientific names of plants often occur in speech. How they are pronounced really matters little provided they sound pleasant and are understood by all concerned.”

William T. Stearn (1983): Botanical Latin, 3rd Edition: 53