Myrtillocactus

Myrtillocactus Console (1897)

🌵 Author(s)	Michelangelo Console
🌵 Published in	Boll. Reale Orto Bot. Palermo 1: 8 (1897)
🌵 Type	Myrtillocactus geometrizans

Etymology

Latin myrtillus ‘blueberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.)’, originally a diminutive form of myrtus ‘true myrtle (Myrtus communis L.)’ + Cactus. For the small white flowers and the black berries, which both resemble those of blueberry and true myrtle.

The name was first proposed by Schumann (Nat. Pflanzenfam. [Engler & Prantl] 3(6a): 178. 1894): “This plant is, according to kind oral communication from Dr. Weber and Mathsson, furnished with very small, numerous, white flowers, which produce black berries when ripe; it is valued as a fruit plant under the name Caramboyo. It is probably the type of a separate genus for which the name Myrtillocactus would be appropriate. However, a judgment is only permitted once the blossoms have been examined more closely.”