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Browningia candelaris

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Species of plant

Browningia candelaris
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Genus: Browningia
Species: B. candelaris
Binomial name
Browningia candelaris
(Meyen) Britton & Rose

Browningia candelaris is a species of cactus from northern Chile and southern Peru. It has a distinctive growth habit, with a straight spiny trunk topped by more-or-less spineless thinner branches. In some places, the long-term survival of local populations may be threatened by grazing, which destroys seedlings.

Description

Browningia candelaris has a tree-like habit of growth, reaching a height of up to 6 m (20 ft). When mature, it has a distinct unbranched trunk with a diameter of up to 50 cm (20 in), which is densely covered with straight brown spines, 6–15 cm (2.4–5.9 in) long. Mauseth found spines of this species up to 10.2 inches (25.5 centimeters) in length. Above the trunk the plant has a crown of branching thinner stems, which may be entirely spineless or bear spines reduced to a few bristles. All the stems have about 50 ribs.

The white flowers are tubular, 8–12 cm (3.1–4.7 in) long and are followed by fleshy fruits, yellow when ripe and up to 7 cm (2.8 in) long. The fruits are edible.

Systematics

The species was first described as Cereus candelaris in 1833 by the German botanist Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen. In 1920, Britton and Rose placed it in the genus Browningia, named for Webster E Browning (1869-1942), director of the Instituto Inglés, Santiago, Chile. Studies published from 2002 onwards using the methods of molecular phylogenetics suggest that the genus Browningia is polyphyletic (i.e. the genus is not a natural group descended from their most recent common ancestor). B. candelaris and B. hertlingiana are related to some species of Rebutia, whereas other species of Browningia are related to genera such as Pachycereus.

Chemistry

Browningia candelaris has been found to contain psychotropic phenylethylamines N-acetyl-3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine, N,N-dimethyl-3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine, N,N-dimethyl-4-methoxyphenylethylamine and the substituted amphetamine 4-methoxyamphetamine. The synthetic form of the last-named of these compounds has, since the 1970s, been manufactured as a designer drug of abuse and touted as MDMA - resulting in numerous hospitalisations and a number of fatalities.

Possible employment as hallucinogen

Based upon the discovery of the psychotropic effects of and subsequent use of such well-known hallucinogenic species as Lophophora williamsii and Echinopsis pachanoi by various groups of Native Americans, Echeverría & Niemeyer advance the very tentative hypothesis that B. candelaris might similarly have been investigated and employed by the original inhabitants of northern Chile:

The occasional use of B. candelaris as source of hallucinogens may be suggested, given its presence along the route connecting the settlements in the Azapa Valley of Northern Chile with the Titicaca basin in the Bolivian altiplano, the site of the Tiwanaku state.

- citing in support of this conjecture a paper by Berenguer on the iconography employed in the art of Tiwanaku.

Gallery

  • Mature specimen, silhouetted by starlight and showing to advantage longer spines on trunk Mature specimen, silhouetted by starlight and showing to advantage longer spines on trunk
  • Detail of branches borne by long-spined trunk Detail of branches borne by long-spined trunk
  • Detail of young stem: a "candle" from a B. candelaris "candelabrum". Detail of young stem: a "candle" from a B. candelaris "candelabrum".

References

  1. "Browningia candelaris", Tropicos, Missouri Botanical Garden, 2012, retrieved 2012-04-21
  2. ^ Anderson, Edward F. (2001), The Cactus Family, Pentland, Oregon: Timber Press, ISBN 978-0-88192-498-5, pp. 134–135
  3. Mauseth, James P. (2002). A Cactus Odyssey. Portland: Timber Press. p. 175.
  4. Meyen, J. (1833), "Einiges über die schönen Cactus-Arten auf der Westküste von Südamerika", Allgemeine Gartenzeitung (in German), 1 (27): 211, retrieved 2012-04-21
  5. Hernández-Hernández, Tania; Hernández, Héctor M.; De-Nova, J. Arturo; Puente, Raul; Eguiarte, Luis E. & Magallón, Susana (2011), "Phylogenetic relationships and evolution of growth form in Cactaceae (Caryophyllales, Eudicotyledoneae)", American Journal of Botany, 98 (1): 44–61, doi:10.3732/ajb.1000129, PMID 21613084
  6. ^ ECHEVERRÍA, Javier; NIEMEYER, Hermann M. "Phenylethylamines from Browningia candelaris (Cactaceae)" Boletín Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Plantas Medicinales y Aromáticas, vol. 11, núm. 4, julio- agosto, 2012, pp. 341-344 Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/856/85623048005.pdf
  7. EcstasyData.org. "EcstasyData.org: Results : Lab Test Results for Recreational Drugs". www.ecstasydata.org.
  8. Davies, Caroline (10 July 2013). "Warning over fake ecstasy tablets after seven people die in Scotland". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  9. "Four Dead Amid Fears Of Dodgy Batch Of 'Superman' Ecstasy Hitting The UK". huffingtonpost.co.uk. 2 January 2015.
  10. Byard, RW; Gilbert, J; James, R; Lokan, RJ (1998). "Amphetamine Derivative Fatalities in South Australia-Is "Ecstasy" the Culprit?". The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. 19 (3): 261–265. doi:10.1097/00000433-199809000-00013. PMID 9760094. Retrieved 2008-06-29.
  11. Berenguer J. 1998. "La iconografía del poder en Tiwanaku y su rol en la integración de zonas de frontera". Bol Museo Chil Arte Precolomb 7: 19 - 37. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265207173_La_iconografia_del_poder_en_Tiwanaku_y_su_rol_en_la_integracion_de_zonas_de_frontera Retrieved at 12.27pm on 6/9/21
Taxon identifiers
Browningia candelaris
Cereus candelaris
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