Pygmaeocereus bylesianus

[Phil Hocking]

Purchased at the Exeter Convention a few days ago complete with bud, the flower opened tonight. This is Pygmaeocereus bylesianus and the flower has an odd scent which reminds me of something but I can't quite think what.

Pygmaeocereus bylesianus

Somerset Phil

Corrected the spelling - seems several other people, nurseries included, omit the 'o' according to a web search.

[sechjoh]

Nice flower!!

But is the genus name Pygmaeocereus or Pygmaecereus?

[DaveW]

With an "o" Christer:-

Pygmaeocereus Johnson & Backeberg, NCSS Journal, 12: 86, 1957. Type species P. bylesianus Andr. & Backbg.

DaveW

[ralphrmartin]

But is the genus name Pygmaeocereus or Pygmaecereus?

The place to go to settle this kind of question, and a good many others about plant names, is IPNI:

http://www.ipni.org/

[Mike]

Yes they do have a lovely scent -for me it's something like smelling a bunch of Gardenias while in a hospital - a slightly sickly medical overtone!
Mike

[DaveW]

Not sure what the up to date rules are as I can't remember which is the present "Code", but I believe spelling mistakes can be corrected. But then some disputes arise whether the original author meant it to be spelt that way, because after all a name is just a handle and the original author can make up any name they want for a genus or species.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/1218097

http://www.bgbm.org/iapt/nomenclature/c ... Art_60.htm

However rule 60 does not seem to have changed much between the various Code versions anyway.

One example of a correction was David Hunt's changing of Ariocarpus scapharostrus to A. scaphirostris. As said before though, there is often a dispute as to whether the original author intended it to be spelt that way rather than just being a spelling mistake. As with Hunt's corrected spelling of Lobivia famatinensis from Famatina, Argentina rather than the L. famatimensis spelling of the original author.

DaveW

[Phil_SK]

Isn't Pygmaeocereus constructed correctly? I've tried to follow through the logic of Art. 60G.1(a)(1-3) and it seems OK (apart from I though it would need the Latin connective -i- rather than the Greek -o-). There are certainly similarly named Pygmaeomorpha and Pygmaeothamnus (the autocomplete in Google Search has its uses!).

Correcting mistakes where an author has made a mistake with a real name (like the Famatina case Dave mentions) are always trickier as you do need to start thinking "What was intended?" whereas where someone simply hasn't followed the grammar rules such as with connectives it's more clear cut. Weingartia fidana (not fidaiana) and Echinopsis jajoana (not jajoiana) are clear cases of this where Art. 60C.1(c) wasn't observed.

I think.

[Ali Baba]

To my nose they have a slightly medicinal scent (wintergreen perhaps) with a undertone of fresh mushrooms if you sniff hard...

[anttisepp]

So, close to them Setiechinopsis mirabilis also has a scent with clear camfora tone. IMHO