The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum
Indian Comb is a large columnar cactus from Mexico that can reach about 15 m, grown mainly as a specimen plant in warm, dry, frost-free areas. Its key to success is full sun, excellent drainage and very sparing watering.
Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum (commonly known as hairbrush or Indian comb) is a columnar cactus plant native to Mexico. They can grow up to 15 m (49 ft) high. The trunk of this species is 1.2 to 5.0 m tall and the fruits are large and burr-like. The specific name, pecten-aboriginum, is from the Latin, and means "native combs". It was inspired by the use of the fruits as hair combs.
P. pecten-aboriginum is endemic to Mexico. Its range extends throughout the western states from Baja California through Sinaloa and Sonora to Chiapas. It grows in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts, the thorn forest of Sinaloa, and the southern Sonoran plains.
Lemaireocereus hollianus · Lophocereus gatesii · Old Man Cactus · Cactus · Cardón Cactus · Pachycereus tepamo · Pachycereus weberi · Torch Cacti
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum 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.
