Xerophyte

Seeds

Large (approx. 3,5 mm) shiny black.

Description

Stenocereus beneckeiSN|8265]]SN|25145]] is a shrubby, semi-prostrate columnar cactus with tuberculate ribs. It forms untidy, much branched bushes 1-2(-5) meters high. This plant has an attractive grey white bloom on the new growth.

Note

The presence of a horizontal notch midway between areoles is a distinctive feature in Stenocereus beneckei, Stenocereus martinezii, Stenocereus quevedonis, and Stenocereus thurberiSN|25145]]SN|8265]], but is absent in the remaining species of Stenocereus and other genera.

Flowers

Night-blooming, narrowly funnel-shaped, cream or greenish brown coloured , 4 cm long or more; inner perianth-segments rose-coloured to greenish-white; ovary globose, glaucous, tuberculate, with small felted areoles bearing 3 to 7 acicular spines or none.

Blooming Season

Winter, opening during the night and staying open 24 hours.

Spines

Usually 1 to 3 (rarely more), acicular, the uppermost central one longest sometimes up to 4 cm long, the lower 1-1,5 cm long, grey with reddish tips, brown or black at first. Spineless forms are also known.

Ribs

5 to 9 strongly tuberculate, obtuse, separated by narrow intervals.

Stem

Erect or decumbent, bluish-green or bronze-green up 1-2 (or more) m long, 4-7 cm in diameter, the growing tips very glaucous with a powdery silvery-white waxy coating.

Fruits

Less than 5 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, greyish-brown or reddish-brown, tuberculate bearing 8-9 spines per areole, up to 2 cm long; pericarp thick, somewhat fleshy; pulp disappearing, leaving the large seeds loose, these escaping by a basal pore as in Oreocereus and many of the Echinocactanae.

Areoles

Small, circular, borne on the upper side of the tubercle, reddish-brown to black-felted 2- 5 cm apart.