Oroya is a genus of cacti (family Cactaceae), native to Peru. The genus is widespread in the Peruvian Andes.
Oroya species are solitary, but sometimes multi-shooted with a globular form and many ribs with usually-dense pectinate spines and a tuberous root.. Usually up to high, and in diameter. Their flat-spherical or pressed spherical to short-cylindrical shoots have many ribs, which sometimes form low warts. Long, narrow areoles sit on them from which 1 to 6 central spines and several comb-shaped marginal spines arise.[1]
Small flowers (up to 1 cm in diameter) grow along a ring near the top of the plant. The flowers are yellow, but their stems are often pink or red.
The first plants were collected by August Weberbauer near La Oroya. Karl Moritz Schumann described the species in 1903 as Echinocactus peruvianus. In their first description of the genus in 1922, Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose placed it as the only species in their newly created genus Oroya.[2] The name comes from the Peruvian town of La Oroya where the first plants were discovered.[3]
, Plants of the World Online accepted two species:[4]
| Image | Scientific name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Oroya borchersii (Boed.) Backeb. | Peru (Ancash) | |
| Oroya peruviana (K. Schum.) Britton & Rose | Peru (Cuzco, Junin) | |