Echinocereus sciurus
(K.Brandegee) Britton & Rose (1922)
Etymology
🌵 Author(s) | Joseph Nelson RoseNathaniel Lord Britton |
🌵 Basionym | Cereus sciurus (1904) |
🌵 Basionym author(s) | Katharine Brandegee |
Latin scÄÅ«rus ‘squirrel’ (from Greek skiouros ‘shadow-tail’). Not explained by Brandegee. According to John Borg (Cacti, ed. 2: 226. 1951) for the “flowering tops of the stems [that] are often curved, like a squirrel’s tail”. According to Eggli & Newton (Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names. 2004) “perhaps for the colour and texture of the spination resembling a squirrel tail”. The two explanations are not mutually incompatible. Brandegee described the spines as “gray on the older parts, light yellowish brown with darker tips on the young growth”.
Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Feb 05). Echinocereus sciurus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/echinocereus-sciurus