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Cereus jamacaru
Also called Peruvian Apple Cactus, Pitaya
Queen of the Night (Cereus jamacaru) is a large columnar cactus tree from the dry caatinga of Brazil, grown as a drought-tolerant ornamental and for animal feed. Give it full sun, sharp drainage and very little water.
Cereus jamacaru, known as mandacaru or cardeiro, is a cactus native to central and eastern Brazil. and naturalized in South Africa. It often grows up to 5 m (16 ft) high.
It is endemic to the Brazilian states of Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Goiás, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí and Rio Grande do Norte. It is a very common species in the semi-arid caatinga habitats. Many birds feed on the fruit, like the white-naped jay, "gralha-cancã" and the Caatinga parakeet "periquito-da-caatinga."
A thorn-less kind is used for animal feed. The most common kind is very thorny but is also used for animal feed, after burning or cutting off the thorns. Mandacaru is highly drought-resistant.
Cereus aethiops · Cereus albicaulis · Cereus bicolor · Cereus fernambucensis · Cereus forbesii · Cereus fricii · Lady of the night cactus · Hedge cactus · Cereus horrispinus · Cereus insularis · Cereus lamprospermus · Cereus lanosus
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cereus jamacaru by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
