Rhipsalis shaferi Britton & Rose
See Korotkova Thesis 2011
Rhipsalis baccifera subsp. shaferi merits species
rank. Its old name Rhipsalis shaferi Britton & Rose can
easily be reinstated.
R. baccifera subsp. shaferi (Britton & Rose) Barthlott and N P Taylor in Bradleya 13 (1995
- Stems at first
stiff, erect or ascending, afterwards spreading or procumbent,
4 to 5 mm. thick, terete, green or more or less purplish at tips;
- juvenile and
lower branches often bearing several bristles at areoles;
- upper branches
without bristles or with a single appressed one;
- scales subtending
the areoles small but broad;
- flowers numerous,
scattered all along side of branch, solitary (rarely in pairs) at
areoles, small, rotate, greenish white, 8 to 10 mm. broad; petals
5 or 6, short-oblong, obtuse;
- filaments
greenish, erect;
- stigma-lobes
4, white; ovary not sunken in branch;
- fruit small,
globose, 2 to 3 mm. in diameter, white or sometimes tinged with
pink.
Collected by
John A. Shafer on trees at Asuncion, Paraguay, March 18, 1917 (No.139),
on trees at Trinidad, Paraguay, March 17, 1917 (No.134, type), again
in Paraguay (Nos. 145 and 147), and on trees at Posados, Misiones,
Argentina (No.131).
DISTRIBUTION
- Paraguay, southern Bolivia, northern Argentina.
Chromosome number:
2n = 22. With generally shorter, stiffer stem-segments than subsp. baccifera, with which it intergrades.
Copyright Ken Friedman at Kew 2006
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