Name and distribution
Tacinga braunii was described by Esteves in 1989. The name remains accepted in POWO. The species occurs in Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, within the seasonally dry tropical forest biome. It is a shrub or subshrub whose stems lean on other plants. [2-WWW]
Stems and identifying characters
The stems are long, cylindrical to flattened, with more pronounced flattening towards the ends. The morphological comparison from 2024 reports dimensions reaching about 6 m. This description concerns plants with spreading and climbing stems. The areoles bear glochids, while the large, stiff spines characteristic of T. armata or T. werneri are reduced here. [Menezes and Alves 2024] [Freitas et al. 2021]
The key from 2021 distinguishes it from the similar T. funalis by features including greenish-white anthers and more densely hairy fruit areoles with shorter glochids, 1–2 mm long. In T. funalis, fruit glochids were described as longer, measuring 3–4 mm. When identifying the two plants, the position and structure of reproductive organs complement assessment of stem shape. [Freitas et al. 2021]
Flowers, fruits and chromosomes
The comparison of genus characters describes the tepals of T. braunii as pale green to purplish. The fruits are narrow, urn-shaped and greenish. The cytological literature compiled in the study of T. mirim gives a diploid count of 2n = 22 for T. braunii. The same ploidy level occurs in T. funalis, despite differences in some floral and fruit characters. [Menezes and Alves 2024]