Echinomelocactus

Echinomelocactus Juss. ()
🌡 Author(s)
🌡 Published in Dict. Sci. Nat., ed. 2. [F. Cuvier] 14: 193 (1819)
🌡 Type not cited
Etymology

Greek echinos ‘hedgehog’ + Greek melon ‘melon’ + Greek kaktos, a prickly plant found in Sicily, possibly the cardoon or artichoke thistle (Cynara cardunculus), hence “hedgehog melon-thistle”, as Philip Miller called it. For the spines and the size and shape of the plant.

A pre-Linnaean name (also spelled Echinomelocactos), first used by Matthias de Lobel and Pierre Pena in 1570/1571, perhaps validly published by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1819.

The name was shortened to Melocactus by Tournefort and shortened again to Cactus by Linnaeus in 1753. Link and Otto restored the name Melocactus and published the name Echinocactus for another genus in 1827.


How to cite

Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2022 Oct 05). Echinomelocactus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/echinomelocactus