Species
+

Cereus jamacaru DC.

Mandacarú, Peruvian Apple Cactus, Pitaya, Queen Of The Night

Climate known 49 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cereus jamacaru, known as mandacaru or cardeiro, is a cactus native to central and eastern Brazil. and naturalized in South Africa. It often grows up to 5 m (16 ft) high.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cereus jamacaru”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast +1
Wild records
827 in range· 433 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Nov, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
666mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Mar 148 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Cereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, January to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 666 mm a year, wettest March at 148 mm, driest August at 10 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cereus cauchinii Rebut; Cereus perrottetianus Lem.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Cereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, January to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (492 mm of 666 mm) falls in January to May. The temperature curve is flat, 3.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 666 mm a year, wettest March at 148 mm, driest August at 10 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

666 mm a year at the habitat, 492 mm of it January to May. Wettest month March at 148 mm, driest August at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 546 mm to 1308 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 15.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 15.7 °C, the absolute minimum 13.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.9 °C in August (across the envelope cells 15.5 °C to 22.8 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in November (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Nov; mean night from 19 °C in Aug to 22 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 666 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 633 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 28–42RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 633 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 27–3331 / 28–3330 / 27–3229 / 27–3129 / 26–3128 / 24–3127 / 24–3128 / 25–3330 / 26–3431 / 28–3531 / 28–3531 / 27–34
Night °C22 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2421 / 17–2420 / 16–2319 / 15–2319 / 16–2320 / 17–2321 / 18–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–24
Rain mm90 / 46–18091 / 54–166148 / 88–255105 / 52–22158 / 15–15336 / 5–12721 / 2–10810 / 2–7011 / 2–4415 / 3–8223 / 4–16558 / 21–208
DLI39 / 36–4139 / 36–4136 / 33–3933 / 30–3531 / 26–3328 / 23–3229 / 24–3433 / 27–3939 / 33–4342 / 37–4542 / 36–4540 / 36–42
RH %59 / 55–6460 / 56–6561 / 58–6661 / 58–6761 / 55–6660 / 54–6759 / 52–6657 / 50–6556 / 49–6356 / 49–6257 / 50–6258 / 52–63

Each figure is the median across the 633 grid cells holding the 815 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1959:2833 (-7.975, -38.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 633 distinct grid cells holding the 815 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1959:2833 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -8.00_-38.125, lapse-corrected -41 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 499 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North· introduced: Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces
Kew's description“succulent tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-5.492, -37.272 · in the densest population, 421 records (51% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 827 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 433 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 228 km away. 741 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 827 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cereus jamacaruCereus jamacaruCereus jamacaruCereus jamacaruCereus jamacaruCereus jamacaruCereus jamacaruCereus jamacaru

Photographs: (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Carlos Otávio Gussoni, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Breno Figueiredo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cereus jamacaru, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Water Regime Influences Bulk Soil and Rhizosphere of Cereus jamacaru Bacterial Communities in the Brazilian Caatinga Biome
Vanessa Nessner Kavamura, Rodrigo Gouvêa Taketani, Milena Duarte Lançoni, Fernando Dini Andreote (2013) · PLoS ONE
Seed germination responses of Cereus jamacaru DC. ssp. jamacaru (Cactaceae) to environmental factors
Marcos Vinícius Meiado, LARISSA SIMÕES CORRÊA DE ALBUQUERQUE, Emerson Antônio Rocha Melo de Lucena, Mariana Rojas‐Aréchiga (2010) · Plant Species Biology
Use and knowledge of Cactaceae in Northeastern Brazil
Camilla Marques de Lucena, Reinaldo Farias Paiva de Lucena, Gabriela Maciel Costa, Thamires Kelly Nunes Carvalho (2013) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Biological Control of Cactaceae in South Africa
Iain D. Paterson, J. H. Hoffmann, Hildegard Klein, C.W. Mathenge (2011) · African Entomology
Powdered biosorbent from the mandacaru cactus (cereus jamacaru) for discontinuous and continuous removal of Basic Fuchsin from aqueous solutions
Jordana Georgin, Dison S.P. Franco, Fernanda Caroline Drumm, Patrícia Grassi (2020) · Powder Technology
Fungal endophytes from cactus Cereus jamacaru in Brazilian tropical dry forest: a first study
Jadson Diogo Pereira Bezerra, Marília G. S. Santos, Renan do Nascimento Barbosa, Virgínia Michelle Svedese (2013) · Symbiosis
Seed reserve composition and mobilization during germination and early seedling establishment of Cereus jamacaru D.C. ssp. jamacaru (Cactaceae)
Nara Lídia Mendes Alencar, Renato Innecco, Enéas Gomes‐Filho, Maria Izabel Gallão (2012) · Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
Frugivory and seed dispersal by birds in Cereus jamacaru DC. ssp. jamacaru (Cactaceae) in the Caatinga of Northeastern Brazil
VGN Gomes, Z G M Quirino, Helder Farias Pereira de Araújo (2014) · Brazilian Journal of Biology
Extraction and characterization of cellulose nanowhiskers from Mandacaru (Cereus jamacaru DC.) spines
Neymara C. Nepomuceno, Amélia S. F. Santos, Juliano Elvis de Oliveira, Gregory M. Glenn (2016) · Cellulose
Flora do Pico do Jabre, Paraíba, Brasil: Cactaceae juss
Emerson Antônio Rocha Melo de Lucena, Maria de Fátima Agra (2002) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Food flora in 17th century northeast region of Brazil in Historia Naturalis Brasiliae
Maria Franco Trindade Medeiros, Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque (2014) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Conhecimento local sobre cactáceas em comunidades rurais na mesorregião do sertão da Paraíba (Nordeste, Brasil)
Camilla Marques de Lucena, Gabriela Maciel Costa, Rodrigo Ferreira de Sousa, Thamires Kelly Nunes Carvalho (2012) · Biotemas

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cereus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 61 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.