''Deamia'' is a genus of

cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

. Its species are native from south

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

through

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. Its species have been placed in ''

Selenicereus ''Selenicereus'', sometimes known as moonlight cactus, is a genus of Epiphyte, epiphytic, Lithophyte, lithophytic, and terrestrial cactus, cacti, found in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. The term night-bloomin ...

'' and '' Strophocactus''.

Description

Species of ''Deamia'' are climbing or pendent shrubs. Their flowers have hairs and spines and are followed by red fruit with clear pulp.

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by

Nathaniel Lord Britton Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859 – 1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York (state), New York. Early life Britton was born on the 15 of January 1859 at New Dorp, Staten Island ...

and

Joseph Nelson Rose Joseph Nelson Rose (January 11, 1862 – May 4, 1928) was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, ...

in 1920, with the single species '' Deamia testudo''. The name honours Charles C. Deam, a plant collector who sent the plant to Britton and Rose. It was treated as a distinct monotypic genus until 1965, when

Franz Buxbaum Franz Buxbaum (25 February 1900, Liebenau, Graz – 7 February 1979) was an Austrian botanist, specialising in cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the orde ...

merged it into ''Selenicereus''.

Alexander Doweld Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

revived the genus in 2002, adding the species then treated as ''Selenicereus chontalensis''.

Molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies in 2017 (based on the two species then known) and in 2018 (three species) confirmed the

monophyly In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent comm ...

of the genus. It was placed in the tribe Echinocereeae, subtribe Pachycereinae. It was one of the early diverging members of the tribe in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

s obtained in the 2018 study, with the species related as follows:

Species

Two species were accepted in a 2017 study of the tribe

Hylocereeae The Hylocereeae are a tribe of cacti. Most are found in the tropical forests of Central and northern South America, and are climbers or epiphytes, unlike most cacti. The tribe includes between six and eight genera in different circumscriptio ...

which revived the genus ''Deamia''. A third species was described in 2018. A new species

Deamia funis ''Deamia'' is a genus of Cactus, cacti. Its species are native from south Mexico through Central America to Nicaragua. Its species have been placed in ''Selenicereus'' and ''Strophocactus''. Description Species of ''Deamia'' are climbing or pende ...

was discovered in 2022 ,

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

still placed ''D. chontalensis'' in the genus ''Selenicereus''.

References

{{taxonbar, from1=Q30339211 Echinocereeae Cactoideae genera