Cereus repandus

Cereus repandus (syn. Cereus peruvianus), the Peruvian apple cactus, is a large, erect, thorny columnar cactus found in South America. It is also known as giant club cactus, hedge cactus, cadushi (in Papiamento and Wayuunaiki[2]), and kayush.

Peruvian apple cactus
Drawing of flowering stem
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Core eudicots
Order:
Caryophyllales
Family:
Cactaceae
Subfamily:
Cactoideae
Tribe:
Cereeae
Genus:
Cereus
Species:
C. repandus
Binomial name
Cereus repandus
Synonyms

Cereus peruvianus

Cereus repandus is an unresearched, under-utilized cactus, grown mostly as an ornamental plant. And it has some local culinary importance. The Wayuu from the La Guajira Peninsula of Colombia and Venezuela also use the inner cane-like wood of the plant in wattle and daub construction.[2]

Description

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,[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]

Images
  • Small cuttings of Cereus repandus
  • Cereus repandus seedling progression
  • Cereus repandus cutting
  • Cereus repandus var. monstrose large and dwarf varieties
  • Cereus repandus (Pitaya) plants in Sde Nitzan (Israel)

See also

Footnotes
  1. "Cereus repandus (L.) Mill. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  2. Villalobos et al. (2007)
  3. "World Record Academy". 1 September 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  4. Nathan L. Britton and Joseph H. Rose, The Cactaceae (New York: Dover Pub. Inc., 1963 reprint) Vol. 2 p. 11.
  5. Edward F. Anderson: The Great Cactus Encyclopedia . Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8001-4573-1 , pp. 110-111 .

References
  • Anderson, Edward F. (2001): The Cactus Family: 148-149. Timber Press.
  • Villalobos, Soraya; Vargas, Orlando & Melo, Sandra (2007): Uso, manejo y conservacion de "yosú", Stenocereus griseus (Cactaceae) en la Alta Guajira colombiana [Usage, Management and Conservation of yosú, Stenocereus griseus (Cactaceae), in the Upper Guajira, Colombia]. [Spanish with English abstract] Acta Biologica Colombiana 12(1): 99-112. PDF fulltext
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