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. The "Stenocereus beneckei forma inermis" is a cultivated strain easily distinguishable from the standard species for the almost spineless and very white stems. For all other characteristics it is comparable to the standard from.

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

Absent or 1 to 3 very reduced, brown or black at first.

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.