Ficindica

Ficindica Sarg., nom. inval. (1902)

🌵 Author(s)	Charles Sprague Sargent
🌵 Type	Opuntia ficus-indica

Etymology

Latin ficus ‘fig’ + Latin indicus ‘Indian (i.e. American)’. Saint-Lager, who considered specific epithets consisting of two words unacceptable, clearly intended Ficindica as a “correction” of the specific epithet of Opuntia ficus-indica, but many authors, including Britton & Rose (The Cactaceae 1, 1919), misinterpreted it as a generic name. This “genus” should therefore not be attributed to Saint-Lager, as is usually done, but to the first author to misinterpret his work.