Peruvian apple cactus (Cactus of Metro Phoenix (April 2021 EcoQuest Guide))

Peruvian apple cactus

Cereus repandus

Summary ¹¹

Cereus repandus (syn. Cereus peruvianus), the Peruvian apple cactus, is a large, erect, thorny columnar cactus found in South America as well as the nearby ABC Islands of the Dutch Caribbean. It is also known as giant club cactus, hedge cactus, cadushi (in Wayuunaiki), and kayush.

Description ¹²

With an often tree-like appearance, its cylindrical gray-green to blue stems can reach 10 metres (33 feet) in height and 10–20 cm in diameter as a self-supporting plant. However, if supported by a scaffold, C. repandus has grown to a height of 110 feet (34 meters) at the SDM College of Dental Sciences at Dharwad, Karnataka, India, technically making this the tallest cactus plant in the world, although no cactus under natural conditions exceeds eighty-two feet (25 meters) in height in the case of Cereus stenogonus. There are nine to ten rounded ribs that are up to 1 centimeter high. The small areoles on it are far apart. The gray, needle-like thorns are very variable. They are often numerous, but can also be missing entirely. The longest thorns are up to 5 centimeters long.

The large, cream-colored, nocturnal flowers remain open for only one night and are of vital importance to pollinating bats. The fruits, known locally as pitaya, olala (only in some parts of Bolivia) or Peruvian apple, are thornless and vary in skin colour from violet-red to yellow. The edible flesh is white and contains small, edible, crunchy seeds. The flesh sweetens as the fruit opens out fully. As the cactus grows in arid regions and fruits in the dry seasons, the fruit is an essential source of food for birds in its native range.

Sources and Credits

(c) pleiovn, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by pleiovn
(c) Michael Tromp, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Michael Tromp
(c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Annika Lindqvist
(c) Chuck Sexton, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Chuck Sexton
(c) oswaldovidal, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) cfa, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by cfa
(c) Opuntia Cadereytensis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Opuntia Cadereytensis
(c) gold33k, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Alessandro Bartolo, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Alessandro Bartolo
(c) bkelley, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by bkelley
Adapted by Jeny Davis from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereus_repandus
(c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cereus_repandus

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