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• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Growth
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Taxonomy

Notes:

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Physical Description

Family Cactaceae:

Fleshy perennials, shrubs, trees or vines, terrestrial or epiphytic. Stems jointed, terete, globose, flattened, or fluted, mostly leafless and variously spiny. Leaves alternate, flat or subulate to terete, vestigial, or entirely absent; spines, glochids (easily detached, small, bristlelike spines), and flowers always arising from cushionlike, axillary areoles (modified short shoots) . Flowers solitary, sessile, rarely clustered and stalked (in Pereskia), bisexual, rarely unisexual, actinomorphic or occasionally zygomorphic. Receptacle tube (hypanthium or perianth tube) absent or short to elongate, naked or invested with leaflike bracts, scales, areoles, and hairs, bristles, or spines; perianth segments usually numerous, in a sepaloid to petaloid series. Stamens numerous, variously inserted in throat and tube; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary (pericarpel) inferior, rarely superior, 1-loculed, with 3 to many parietal (rarely basal) placentas; ovules usually numerous; style 1; stigmas 2 to numerous, papillate, rarely 2-fid. Fruit juicy or dry, naked, scaly, hairy, bristly, or spiny, indehiscent or dehiscent, when juicy then pulp derived from often deliquescent funicles (except in Pereskia) . Seeds usually numerous, often arillate or strophiolate; embryo curved or rarely straight; endosperm present or absent; cotyledons reduced or vestigial, rarely leaflike.

About 110 genera and more than 1000 species: temperate and tropical America; Rhipsalis baccifera (J. S. Mueller) Stearn native in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarenes, and Sri Lanka; some species of other genera now extensively naturalized in the Old World through human agency; more than 60 genera and 600 species cultivated as ornamentals or hedges in China, of which four genera and seven species more or less naturalized.^[1]

Genus Pilosocereus:

Trees or shrubs, erect to ascending or reclining, usually branched in basal portion, older plants with closely parallel, erect branches forming narrow crown; trunk absent or present, 8-12+ cm diam. Roots diffuse. Stems unsegmented, green to bluish or blue-green, columnar, [0.5-]3-10 m × [2.8-]5-8 cm, glabrous; ribs 3-30, low, rounded, furrows straight [or wavy], rib crests sometimes notched between areoles [ribs strongly tuberculate in 1 Brazilian species]; areoles usually closely spaced along ribs [often confluent in flowering region], circular to elliptic, woolly; hairs usually white or tawny [to blackish] soft, to 8[-50] mm, longest on flower-producing areoles along each rib or on one side of stem in distal region; areolar glands not apparent; cortex and pith extremely mucilaginous. Spines 6-31 per areole, yellow [to brown or black], often aging gray, acicular, straight, terete, [2-]10-15(-25) [-40] × 0.25 mm, smooth; radial and central spines not distinguishable. Flowers nocturnal or crepuscular, lateral to subterminal on stems, from closely adjacent or confluent areoles, funnelform to narrowly campanulate, [2.5-]5-6[-9] × 2-5[-7] cm; flower tube straight or slightly curved; outer tepals greenish [blue, red, or purplish], margins entire or minutely denticulate; inner tepals white [pinkish to reddish], 9-26 × 7.5 mm, margins entire; ovary smooth, scales absent (or 1-2), spines absent; stigma lobes usually 8-12. Fruits dehiscent along 1 side or apparently indehiscent, red or purple [to blue-green], [spheric or] depressed-spheric [to ovoid or oblong], 20-45 × 30-50 mm, fleshy, scales and spines absent (rarely 1-2 scales) ; pulp color variable; floral remnant usually persistent. Seeds black or dark brown, snail-shaped, 1.2-2.6 mm, smooth, shiny; testa cells flat. x = 11.

Species ca. 40: Florida, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America.

The name Pilosocereus was created to replace the illegitimate name Pilocereus, which was earlier applied to this genus. Cephalocereus Pfeiffer, also formerly misapplied to the North American species, is now recognized as restricted to southern Mexico (W. Barthlott and D. R. Hunt 1993; E. F. Anderson 2001), although generic boundaries continue to be the subject of debate.^[2]

Flowers: Flower Color: inconspicuous, none

Distribution

Growth

Culture: Space 9-12" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun.

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Pilosocereus:

There are approximately 170 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: P. aurisetus densilanatus · P. aurisetus supthutianus · P. catingicola arenicola · P. catingicola hapalacanthus · P. catingicola robustus · P. flavipulvinatus carolinensis · P. fulvilanatus vanheekianus · P. leucocephalus palmeri · P. machrisii cristalinensis · P. oligolepis kanukuensis · P. piauhyensis gaturianensis · P. piauhyensis mucosiflorus · P. albisummus (Pilosocereus) · P. alensis (Barba De Viejo) · P. arenicola · P. arrabidae (Facheiro Da Praia) · P. atroflavispinus · P. aureispinus (Pilosocereus) · P. aurilanatus · P. aurisetus (Quiabo Da Lapa) · P. aurisetus aurilanatus · P. aurisetus var. densilanatus (Pilosocereus) · P. azulensis (Pilosocereus) · P. azureus · P. backebergii · P. bahamensis · P. barbadensis · P. bohlei · P. bradei · P. brasiliensis (Pilosocereus) · P. brasiliensis brasiliensis · P. brasiliensis ruschianus (Pilosocereus) · P. braunii · P. brooksianus · P. carolinensis · P. carolinensis var. robustispinus · P. catalani · P. catingicola (Facheiro) · P. catingicola subsp. salvadorensis (Facheiro) · P. cenepequei · P. chrysacanthus (Golden Old Man Cactus) · P. chrysostele (Facheiro) · P. chrysostele cearensis · P. claroviridis · P. coerulescens · P. collinsii · P. colombianus · P. columbianus · P. cometes · P. cristalinensis · P. cuyabensis · P. cyaneus · P. deeringii · P. densiareolatus (Facheiro Da Lapa) · P. densiareolatus brunneolanatus · P. densivillosus · P. diersianus (Pilosocereus) · P. estevesii (Pilosocereus) · P. flavipulvinatus (Pilosocereus) · P. flavipulvinatus var. carolinensis (Pilosocereus) · P. flavipulvinatus var. robustispinus · P. flexibilispinus (Pilosocereus) · P. floccosus (Pilosocereus) · P. floccosus floccosus · P. floccosus quadricostatus · P. fulvilanatus (Pilosocereus) · P. fulvilanatus fulvilanatus · P. fulvilanatus rosae (Pilosocereus) · P. gaturianensis · P. gaumeri · P. gimnensis · P. gironensis · P. glaucescens (Pilosocereus) · P. glaucochrous · P. goianus · P. gounellei (Alastrado) · P. gounellei gounellei · P. gounellei var. zehnteri · P. gounellei var. zehntneri · P. gounellei zehntneri · P. gruberi · P. guerreronis · P. hapalacanthus · P. hermentianus · P. jauruensis · P. juaruensis · P. kanukuensis · P. keyensis · P. laniflorus · P. lanuginosus (Pilosocereus) · P. leucocephalus (Cabeza De Viejo) · P. leutzelburgii · P. lindaianus · P. luetzelburgii · P. machrisii (Pilosocereus) · P. magnificus (Facheiro) · P. maxonii · P. millspaughii · P. minensis · P. mollispinus

Bibliography

• .Li Zhenyu. 1999. Cactaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 272-285.
• Anderson, E. F. (2001): The Cactus Family, Timber Press, Protland, Oregon
• Austin, D. F. 1984. Resumé of the Florida taxa of Cereus (Cactaceae). Florida Sci. 47: 65-68.
• Hennessey, M. K. and D. H. Habeck. 1994. Observations on reproduction of an endangered cactus, Cereus robinii (Lemaire) L. Benson. Florida Sci. 57: 93-101.
• Lima, A. N. and R. M. Adams. 1996. The distribution and abundance of Pilosocereus robinii (Lemaire) Byles and Rowley in the Florida Keys. Bradleya 14: 57-62.
• Zappi, D. C. 1994. Pilosocereus (Cactaceae): The Genus in Brazil. Sherborne.

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Notes

Identifiers:

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 1480198
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:137818-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 881803

Footnotes:

1. Zhen-yu Li & Nigel P. Taylor "Cactaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 209. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. Bruce D. Parfitt & Arthur C. Gibson "Pilosocereus". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 97, 179, 180. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.