Cactus Explorers Journal - The Cactus Explorers Club

Photo: A. Hofacker
The Cactus Explorer ISSN 2048-0482 Number 4 May 2012
Fig. 15 Parodia nothohorstii in habitat east of Minas do Camaqua, Brazil.
As mentioned above, Albesiano & Kiesling
also synonymize Wigginsia horstii with
Wigginsia corynodes. For this they studied only
living material of a single collection of Omar
Ferrari from Punta Ballenas (correctly written
Punta Ballena) in southern Uruguay. This is a
complete misinterpretation and shows the
importance of knowing plants from their
original habitat. Wigginsia horstii was described
from Minas do Camaqua in the state of Rio
Grande do Sul in Brazil, about 500km north of
Punta Ballena. This species is different from
both Wigginsia corynodes and Echinocactus
acuatus var. arechavaletai. It is also the only
Wigginsia which a non-specialist can recognize
very easily. Typical are the small elongated
globose to cylindric stems (9cm in diameter
and 15cm high), the rib-number of 18-24, the
close areoles (only 4mm apart), the very
woolly areoles, the high number of radial
spines (18-24), the short stigma lobes which are
sometimes grown together like a plate and the
small fruit less than 1cm long with only about
32
25 seeds.
Albesiano & Kiesling state correctly that the
names Notocactus neoarechavaletae Havliček
under ICBN Art 52. 1 and Parodia
neoarechavaletae (Havliček) D.R. Hunt under
ICBN Art 11.4 are incorrect because the oldest
available name at the same rank is Echinocactus
maldonadensis Herter.
The missing combination under Parodia for
this species follows here:
Parodia maldonadensis (Herter) Hofacker
comb. nov.
Basionym: Echinocactus maldonadensis Herter
Florula Uruguayensis plantae vasculares 4, in
Estudios Botanicae en la Region Uruguaya.
Privately published, Montevideo, 1930..
Neotypus (designated here): Heinz Ruoff 107
(FRP).
The neotypification is necessary because
there is no type designated for this taxon. Even
if Albesiano & Kiesling indicated that Havliček