Cactus pentagonus
L. (1753)
Etymology
| 🌵 Author(s) | Carl Linnaeus |
Greek penta ‘seven’ + Greek –gōnos ‘-angled’. For the supposed number of ribs (“angles”). Linnaeus described this species as having “almost five angles”. In fact the number of ribs ranges from three to five and Cactus pentagonus is now considered a synonym of Linnaeus’s Cactus tetragonus (“four-angled”). Linnaeus named several cactus species for their number of ribs: Cactus triangularis (3), Cactus tetragonus (4); Cactus pentagonus (“almost 5”), Cactus hexagonus (6) and Cactus heptagonus (7).
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Feb 02). Cactus pentagonus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/cactus-pentagonus