Aporocactus

Aporocactus Lem. (1860)

🌵 Author(s)	Charles Lemaire
🌵 Type	Aporocactus flagelliformis

Etymology

Greek aporia ‘perplexity’ + Cactus. Named in reference to the emotion the difficulties in cactus taxonomy caused in Lemaire. He described the genus under the motto (after Virgil) “Tantæ molis adest Cactorum condere gentem” (“It is such a massive task to establish the cactus race”).

Not from Greek aporos ‘impenetrable’ (Boerner, Taschenwörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen. 4. Auflage. 1989) or “the flower tube being blocked from entry by the stamens” (Mottram, Cactician 4. 2014).

See also Selenicereus tricae.