Ariocarpus et Cetera: The Special, Smaller Genera of Mexican Cacti has a checklist on the different genera and species and treats Acharagma, Ariocarpus, Astrophytum, Aztekium, Cumarinia, Epithelantha, Geohintonia, Leuchtenbergia, Lophophora, Neolloydia, Obregonia, Ortegocactus, Pelecyphora, Stenocactus, Strombocactus, Toumeya, and Turbinicarpus.
This book is the culmination of over 50 years’ enthusiasm by the authors for cactus plants in general, and particularly for those featured herein.
The appreciation started when both were teenagers, and when plants were particularly difficult to come by. Many available then were dug out of their comfortable homes to spend weeks travelling by various means of transport, before arriving in England in a dehydrated state, requiring a special skill to revive them from the edge of extermination.
Even when revived many of those included here retained that weathered, desert-surviving look and found a special place in the authors’ collections and in their hearts. With a more enlightened attitude these days, most of them in collections are seed-grown, relieving the pressure on the populations in the wild, and this is to be applauded.
lt is hoped that these special, small genera of cacti give as much pleasure to those reading this book as they have given to the authors over a combined century of appreciation.