Commemorating Carlos Porter, Chilean entomologist combined with the Greek neo—new, which distinguishes this genus from the genus Porteria.
Body solitary or occasionally clustering, spherical to shortly cylindrical. Ribs generally comprising a series of prominent tubercles. Areoles oval, sunken and with a fine felt. Flowers diurnal, arising near the body apex variously shaped and coloured. Flower tube with small scales hairy or bristly in the axils, sometimes extremely short. Fruit spherical to elongate, becoming dry, generally splitting at the base. [Horridicactus Backeb., Islaya Backeb., Neochilenia Backeb., Pyrrhocactus (A. Berg.) Backeb. and others]
Fruit club-shaped and partly hollow.
About 25 species from Chile, S Peru, and W Argentina.
Donald & Rowley (1966).
Source: (1997). Cactaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
