The species was first described by
August Grisebach in 1879. The specific epithet
sacharosa is a noun in apposition, derived from a
vernacular name. One explanation is that it is derived from the
Quecha word
sacha, meaning 'tree' or 'woods', hence 'tree rose' or 'woods rose'. In 1966,
Curt Backeberg transferred the species to the genus
Rhodocactus. At that time, this was not accepted by most botanists, and
Rhodocactus was sunk into a broadly
circumscribed Pereskia.
Molecular phylogenetic studies from 2005 onwards suggested that with this circumscription,
Pereskia was not
monophyletic, and consisted of three clades. In 2016, the genus
Rhodocactus was revived for one of these clades, which included
R. sacharosa. In 2025, a major study of the phylogenomics and classification of cacti by De Vos et al. did not recognize
Rhodocactus, based on sparse taxon sampling. ,
Plants of the World Online agreed, accepting
Rhodocactus sacharosa as a synonym of
Pereskia sacharosa. ==Distribution and habitat==