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Cereus bicolor; photograph (c) Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-02-23

Cereus bicolor Rizzini & A.Mattos

Cactaceae · Brazil West-Central · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

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Cereus bicolor, photograph (c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cereus bicolor, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cereus bicolor, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cereus bicolor, photograph (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cereus bicolor, photograph (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cereus bicolor, photograph (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.5°C
Record low 2.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
33°C
Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,360mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September (November to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cereus bicolor is a species of plant in the genus Cereus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cereus bicolor", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the genus Cereus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent shrub or tree”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (991 mm of 1,352 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.4 °C against a yearly mean of 25.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

1,352 mm in the median year at the habitat, 991 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 248 mm, driest month July at 13 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,299 mm to 1,640 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,360 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,352 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.5 °C, the absolute minimum 2.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 14.7 °C to 18.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.5 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, with a lapse correction of 0 m or none (the two are recorded alike); CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Cereus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent shrub or tree”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cereus bicolor through the yearWarmest month October, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.6 °C; 1,352 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°42.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 26–38RH 52–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 31 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 29–3231 / 29–3131 / 29–3131 / 28–3128 / 25–2928 / 24–2928 / 25–3031 / 27–3232 / 29–3333 / 29–3332 / 29–3231 / 29–32
Night °C24 / 22–2424 / 21–2424 / 21–2423 / 19–2320 / 16–2118 / 15–1918 / 15–1819 / 16–2021 / 18–2223 / 20–2424 / 20–2424 / 21–24
Rain mm248 / 226–279184 / 164–199197 / 145–22096 / 85–12747 / 40–10821 / 19–6013 / 11–3523 / 18–4757 / 54–89104 / 99–157155 / 146–180207 / 197–235
DLI35 / 35–3736 / 34–3733 / 32–3431 / 30–3227 / 25–2826 / 23–2728 / 25–2932 / 30–3335 / 33–3638 / 37–3838 / 37–3936 / 36–38
RH %64 / 63–6664 / 63–6665 / 63–6662 / 60–6460 / 58–6158 / 56–6055 / 52–5652 / 50–5454 / 53–5558 / 57–5961 / 59–6363 / 62–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 31 grid cells holding the 75 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2185:2484 (-19.275, -55.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 31 distinct grid cells holding 75 of the 75 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2185:2484 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -19.50_-55.625, lapse-corrected 0 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 125 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil West-Central · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-16.505, -56.676 · in the densest population, 56 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 108 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 75 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 61 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 33 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 108 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cereus bicolor, photograph 1did not loadCereus bicolor, photograph 2did not loadCereus bicolor, photograph 3did not loadCereus bicolor, photograph 4did not loadCereus bicolor, photograph 5did not loadCereus bicolor, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cordia glabrata Cordia glabrata Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolas OlejnikAristolochia ridicula Aristolochia ridicula Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Maruri JoséTaccarum weddellianum Taccarum weddellianum Araceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniGymnocalycium marekiorum Gymnocalycium marekiorum Cactaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael Wolf (Webseite)Tabebuia aurea Tabebuia aurea Caribbean trumpet-tree Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniFuirena umbellata Fuirena umbellata Yefen Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan Copeland

Other Cereus 12 in the reference

Cereus aethiops Cereus aethiops Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, veonaturaCereus fernambucensis Cereus fernambucensis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Henrique NogueiraCereus forbesii Cereus forbesii Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCereus fricii Cereus fricii Cactaceae Photo: CC0, WilfredorCereus hexagonus Cereus hexagonus Lady of the night cactus Photo: CC BY, Bruno Luka de Souza Bambirra SilveiraCereus hildmannianus Cereus hildmannianus Hedge cactus Photo: CC0, author not statedCereus jamacaru Cereus jamacaru Queen-of-the-night Photo: CC BY, Henry de Lange Cereus lamprospermus Cactaceae Cereus lepidotus Cereus lepidotus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Sofía GarcíaCereus repandus Cereus repandus Apple Cactus Photo: CC BY, Jay BrasherCereus spegazzinii Cereus spegazzinii Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCereus stenogonus Cereus stenogonus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Barry Stewart

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
Rizzini & A.Mattos
Native to
Brazil West-Central
Wild records
108 in range · 61 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -19.50_-55.625, lapse-corrected 0 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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