Xerophyte

Central Spines

1 to 4, a little stouter than the radials, ascending, black, to 20 mm long.

Seeds

Black.

Description

Cereus aethiops is a shrubby, erect, more or less columnar cactus, sometimes prostrate, usually much branched from the base, to 2 m high, 1.5 m wide, with blue waxy coating on young stems and peculiar black spines. It is one of the few true Cereus which will flower when small (on 50 cm tall plants ), the night-blooming flowers are fragrant, white to pale pink, to 20 cm long.

Note

The epithet comes from the Greek and means "burn, black" and refers to the black spines.

Flowers

Long, funnel-shaped, slightly scaly, up to 22 cm. long, with a limb 12 cm in diameter; outer perianth-segments linear-lanceolate, purple or rose-colored, bluish green in the outside; inner perianth-segments white; filaments and style included, the former attached all along the inner surface of the long tube.

Stem

Dark bluish green to purplish, 1 to 2 meters high, 2-4(-7.5) cm in diameter branching rarely above; joints 3 dm long or more, somewhat tapering toward the apex; ribs 5 or 8, low, somewhat tuberculate, obtuse or rounded, separated by acute intervals.

Radial Spines

7-12, grey with dark tips or black, at least at bases and tips, to 10 mm long.

Fruits

Prune-shaped, more or less brownish-red to purplish when mature, truncate at apex, with a thick rind, smooth, somewhat glaucous, 4-6 cm long.

Areoles

Large, often nearly black up to 1.5 cm apart.