A Cactus That Blooms Every Few Years

Plant Information

• Night-blooming Cereus, or Cereus greggii, is a Southwest desert native. Although the Cereus genus contains erect, columnar cacti like the Saguaro, greggii sprawls, sending out rangy gray limbs in a tangle of branches that often appear dead. Branches can reach up to 8 feet in length.

Range and Habitat

• Greggii grows in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts, on desert scrubland as far east as Texas and as far south as Northern Mexico. It requires growing conditions similar to those of the creosote bush, in whose shade it is often found. It favors dry washes and desert flats in elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet.

Bloom

• Treasured for its fragrant white blooms, which open after sunset and fade in the midday sunlight of the following day, greggi produces flowers most often during the months of June or July. A variety grown in the National Tropical Botanic Gardens in Hawaii, Hylocereus undatus, appears to be a fairly regular summer attraction, but plants in the wild may bloom far less often. Blooms are large and multi-petaled, attracts insects and is followed by production of a reddish fruit.

Propagation

• Cereus greggii can be propagated from stem cuttings. Mature plants center around a bulbous root ranging from 5 to 50 lbs. and historically used by Native Americans for food. State restrictions may prohibit taking even cuttings from the wild; check with your local conservation or county extension service before removing Cereus greggii from natural habitats.