Today I bought two small cactus. There is a tag in the pots and all it says is 2" cacti species Notocactus. When I look up Notocactus there is lots of names and they say to look up Parodia. Could someone please explain to me how cacti names work?
Mia
names and meanings
Mia,
First off I see your a pretty new member and I would like welcome you to the cactiguide forum. As far a naming conventions of cacti it can be quite complicated. The powers that be of systematic naming seem to be in constant disagreement over names. As most will tell you there are those who want to have more 'categories' and those who want to combine gernera of cacti.
As far as Notocactus and Praodia goes I believe the latest acceptance for classification is that Notocactus have all been included into Parodia now. Most people follow a particular author when it comes to their classifications. For example I know Daiv usually refers to the Cactus Family by Edward Anderson. But even that book is outdated now. I think Daiv has things in order of what would be the most generally accepted classifications at this point and time. A good primer is John's article on the site about scientific naming.
If you go through the site here you will see that Daiv has the other most recent synonyms for each cactus listed. If you look around a bit you will start to see where things have been in most cases combined. The Notocactus being included in Parodia is a great example. Also Trichocereus are now included in Echinopsis, Gymnocactus are now in Turbinicarpus, and all of the Sulcorebutias and Lobivias have been put into Rebutia. So there's a little bit of info about that.
Post a picture or put up a link to a picture of you cactus and I'm sure one of us can i.d. it.
Andy
First off I see your a pretty new member and I would like welcome you to the cactiguide forum. As far a naming conventions of cacti it can be quite complicated. The powers that be of systematic naming seem to be in constant disagreement over names. As most will tell you there are those who want to have more 'categories' and those who want to combine gernera of cacti.
As far as Notocactus and Praodia goes I believe the latest acceptance for classification is that Notocactus have all been included into Parodia now. Most people follow a particular author when it comes to their classifications. For example I know Daiv usually refers to the Cactus Family by Edward Anderson. But even that book is outdated now. I think Daiv has things in order of what would be the most generally accepted classifications at this point and time. A good primer is John's article on the site about scientific naming.
If you go through the site here you will see that Daiv has the other most recent synonyms for each cactus listed. If you look around a bit you will start to see where things have been in most cases combined. The Notocactus being included in Parodia is a great example. Also Trichocereus are now included in Echinopsis, Gymnocactus are now in Turbinicarpus, and all of the Sulcorebutias and Lobivias have been put into Rebutia. So there's a little bit of info about that.
Post a picture or put up a link to a picture of you cactus and I'm sure one of us can i.d. it.
Andy
ondy, I just posted my two newest pictures in the ID section of this forum. Hopefully someone can identify these for me. The first two in that same section John gave me his opinion. Take a peek over there and see what you think. Thanks for the welcome too. I was really frusterated when i first logged on as posting pictures was something I had to figure out but I got it and now I am posting away.
Thanks again....Mia
Thanks again....Mia