Custom Nomenclature Home Page for The Cactus Family
Learn more about the scope and reasoning behind this classification system.
The Cactus Family by Edward Anderson was published in 2001 and is one of the most widely used resources for the cactus family at large. The book's format makes it easy to use.
From a taxonomy standpoint, The Cactus Family is does not stand without critics. Most of the criticism comes from the "splitters" that specialize in specific genera. In comparison to the later "New Cactus Lexicon" (Hunt, et. al.), Anderson maintains a much larger number of taxa, especially within the South American genera such as Echinopsis, and Rebutia. An exception to this is Anderson's treatment of Opuntia, which "The New Cactus Lexicon" split up considerably at the level of genus, but at the same time reduced the number of species considerably more than in "The Cactus Family".
Much of the default classification on CactiGuide.com is based on Anderson's "The Cactus Family" and so most species will be unchanged. The bulk of the changes from the default taxonomy will be a reduction of recognized taxa below the level of species.
The Cactus Family by Edward Anderson was published in 2001 and is one of the most widely used resources for the cactus family at large. The book's format makes it easy to use.