| | The genera of Cactaceae |
The plants condensed-cactoid; low and very compacted in their entirety. The stems weakly spiny; discoid to globose, or ovoid, or shortly cylindric; 1–2.5 cm in diameter; apically depressed; cephaliate (in the depression). The plants geophytic (mostly comprising the tuberous root); unbranched, or offsetting; erect; solitary, or clustering; to 0.005–0.015 m high. The stems not segmented; not ribbed and grooved (ribs being scarcely detectable along the rows of areoles). The plants not conspicuously tuberculate. The areoles not tubercle-associated (or scarcely so - the tubercles represented by mere undulations); distant; borne in longitudinal series; simple; whitish, hairy; without glochids; with spines. The spines clustered (flimsy, near the apex, soon disintegrating or shed); 0.03–0.07 cm long (i.e., almost microscopically small); reddish brown. The mature stems leafless.
The flowers terminal (? - cf. Blossfeldia); one per areole, or more than one per areole (?); sessile; small to medium-sized; about 2 cm in diameter. The receptacle conspicuously produced beyond the ovary into a tubular hypanthium (short and thick). The perianth pink.
The mature fruit thin-walled, non-fleshy when mature; dehiscent; dehiscing vertically by one slit, or dehiscing vertically by more than one slit (? - "splitting from the base"). The seeds not encased in bony arils. Cotyledons reduced or vestigial.
Natural Distribution. Around 3700m elevation in borthern Argentina.
Classification. 1 species (Y. cryptocarpa). Subfamily Cactoideae. Tribe Notocacteae.
No adequate description seen. Cf. Cintia, Blossfeldia, Weingartia, Neowerdemannia.
Images. • Yavia cryptocarpa: © Zoya Zakulova (2007).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2018 onwards. The genera of Cactaceae: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 14th November 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
