Name: Cactaceae
Meaning of Name:
Cactaceae, from Latin cactus, from Ancient Greek κάκτος (káktos, ‘a spiny plant, possibly the cardoon’) + Latin -āceae (the feminine plural of -āceus, ‘resembling’, a suffix used to form the taxonomic family names of plants, algae, bacteria, and fungi)
Common Name:
The cactus family
Botanical Information:
Cactaceae, or the cactus family, contains roughly 127 genera and 1,750 species. (Sadly, not all here with me!)
Cacti are famously known for their thick fleshy stems and spines, but not all species in Cactaceae are actually recognisable as cacti. A prime example is the Rhipsalis genus, or ‘jungle/mistletoe cacti’.
One defining botanical characteristic all Cactaceae share is the presence of areoles, unique to this family. Areoles are the small bumps on cacti stems, which are really highly-specialised branches, from which the spines, flowers and normal shoots grow.
Over 99% of the Cactaceae also make use of Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) to conserve water when fixing carbon dioxide (CO2). CAM is also found in the Bromeliaceae family, another group adapted to hot or dry regions.
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