| 🌵 Author(s) | Victor Gapon |
Nothogenus for intergeneric hybrids between Astrophytum and Melocactus.
The names of nothogenera for bigeneric hybrids are formed by combining the names of the parental genera "into a single word, using the first part or the whole of one, the last part or the whole of the other (but not the whole of both) and, optionally, a connecting vowel" (article H.6.2, International Code of Nomenclature).
Publication not seen, but this is presumably a joke name. Gordon Rowley (Brit. Cact. Succ. J. 18(1): 31. 2000):
×Astromelocactus – you must be joking!
An intergeneric hybrid involving Astrophytum is claimed in the Russian journal The Cactus Club 2(13): 20-21 for March/April 1999. We are introduced to “× Astromelocactus ‘Gaponianus’ Hybr. Nov.”, complete with a description in Russian, type specimen in Tomsk State University Herbarium and a dramatic photograph of the cephalium of a Melocactus matanzanus neatly posed as a coiffure on top of a small hybrid Astrophytum ‘SenAsCap’. I am unable to savour the text, serious or tongue-in-cheek, but can guarantee to produce to order any number of astromelocacti from components to hand in my collection! Incidentally, by the letter of the Code the nothogeneric name is validly published, but must await the day when the marvels of genetic hanky-panky produce some real hybrids before it can come into use.
Mottram (Cactician 4. 2014) considers this name invalid, which it arguably is under article 36.1 and article H.9.1, Note 2, of the International Code of Nomenclature.
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Feb 05). ×Astromelocactus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/astromelocactus