Peniocereus

Peniocereus (A.Berger) Britton & Rose ()
🌵 Author(s)

🌵 Published in Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 12: 428 (1909)
🌵 BasionymCereus subsect. Peniocereus ()
🌵 Basionym author(s)
🌵 Basionym published in Rep. (Annual) Missouri Bot. Gard. 16: 77 (1905)
🌵 Type Peniocereus greggii
Etymology

Not explained by Berger. Greek pēnion ‘thread, spindle, pupa’ or Greek penia ‘poverty’ or Latin penis ‘tail, penis’ + Cereus, the name of a genus of columnar cacti and a designation for columnar cacti in general Britton & Rose (Cactaceae 2: 112. 1920): “The generic name is from the Greek, signifying thread-cereus.” For the slender stems or the long hairs in the axils of the upper scales of the flower tubes? Mottram (Cactician 4. 2014) (‘spindle, pupa’): “A reference to the shape of the fusiform tuberous root, thick but tapered at the top and bottom”? Helmut Genaust (Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen. 3. Auflage. 1996) gives a similar etymology. Eggli & Newton (Etymological Dictionary of Succulent Plant Names. 2004) (‘poverty, tail, penis’): “for the long and slender stems, or for the small spines of some taxa”.


How to cite

Maarten H.J. van der Meer (2023 Jul 24). Peniocereus. Dictionary of Cactus Names. Retrieved from https://www.cactusnames.org/peniocereus

Pronunciation
[pen-ee-oh-SER-ee-us]

Ross Bayton (2019): The Garderner's Botanical

[Peniocéreus]

Helmut Genaust (1996): Etymologisches Wörterbuch der botanischen Pflanzennamen, 3. Auflage

“Botanical Latin is essentially a written language, but the scientific names of plants often occur in speech. How they are pronounced really matters little provided they sound pleasant and are understood by all concerned.”

William T. Stearn (1983): Botanical Latin, 3rd Edition: 53