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Pilosocereus polygonus
Also called Key Tree Cactus, Bahama Dildo, Robin Tree Cactus
Deering's tree cactus is a columnar, tree-like cactus from northwest and central Hispaniola, grown for its ribbed, upright stems and silky-haired flowers. Give it full sun, sharp drainage and little water, and protect it from frost.
Pilosocereus polygonus is a species of cactus (family Cactaceae). Like all species in the genus Pilosocereus, it has a shrub- or tree-like growth habit. It has been treated very differently at times. In the narrow circumscription adopted here, it is endemic to Hispaniola, a position adopted by Britton and Rose in 1920 and endorsed in a 2019 review of the genus in the Caribbean and northern Andes. Treatments in the late 1990s and early 2000s used a much broader circumscription, which included species now recognized as separate, thus giving P. polygonus a much wider distribution. As of July 2025, Plants of the World Online accepted Pilosocereus royenii as a synonym; however it has also been treated as a separate species. Broadly applied English names include dildo cactus, pipe organ cactus, and Royen's tree cactus.
Pilosocereus albisummus · Pilosocereus alensis · Pilosocereus armatus · Pilosocereus arrabidae · Pilosocereus aureispinus · Pilosocereus aurisetus · Pilosocereus azulensis · Pilosocereus brasiliensis · Pilosocereus brevispinus · Pilosocereus brooksianus · Pilosocereus catalani · Pilosocereus catimbauensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pilosocereus polygonus 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.
