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Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum; photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-23

Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum (Engelm. ex S.Watson) Britton & Rose

Indian Comb

Cactaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +3 · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

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Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph (c) nasua, some rights reserved (CC BY) 71 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.1°C
Record low 4.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
795mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–50DLI
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 July to September, 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

Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum (commonly known as hairbrush or Indian comb) is a columnar cactus plant native to Mexico. They can grow up to 15 m (49 ft) high. The trunk of this species is 1.2 to 5.0 m tall and the fruits are large and burr-like. The specific name, pecten-aboriginum, is from the Latin, and means "native combs". More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Pachycereus

Pachycereus is a genus of large cacti native to Central America and Mexico. They form large shrubs or small trees up to 15 m (49 ft) tall, with stout stems up to 1 m in diameter. Pachycereus comes from the ancient Greek παχύς meaning "thick" and the Latin cereus meaning "torch".

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pachycereus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (555 mm of 753 mm) falls in July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.4 °C against a yearly mean of 24.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.

Rain

753 mm in the median year at the habitat, 555 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 200 mm, driest month April at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 387 mm to 1,172 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 795 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 753 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 50 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.1 °C, the absolute minimum 4.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.1 °C to 20.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.0 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.1 °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: 51 to 66% 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, lapse-corrected -192 m to its elevation; 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 Pachycereus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum through the yearWarmest months May and June, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 13.1 °C; 753 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, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 27–50RH 51–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 527 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 °C25 / 22–2827 / 23–2928 / 24–3130 / 26–3332 / 28–3532 / 29–3731 / 28–3530 / 28–3430 / 28–3329 / 28–3228 / 26–3026 / 23–28
Night °C13 / 9–2114 / 10–2115 / 11–2117 / 13–2219 / 16–2423 / 19–2524 / 19–2624 / 19–2624 / 19–2621 / 16–2517 / 12–2314 / 10–22
Rain mm26 / 12–3811 / 6–215 / 2–122 / 1–113 / 0–5239 / 2–208184 / 47–272200 / 96–255171 / 100–26470 / 30–11223 / 12–3519 / 8–35
DLI29 / 27–3335 / 33–3843 / 41–4448 / 46–4850 / 43–5244 / 36–5037 / 34–4536 / 33–4233 / 30–3834 / 32–3630 / 29–3327 / 25–31
RH %56 / 51–6455 / 49–6353 / 46–6251 / 43–6253 / 43–6359 / 48–6564 / 55–6765 / 59–6966 / 60–7062 / 53–6758 / 50–6557 / 51–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 527 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1297 records in those cells; 6 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1304:1447 (24.775, -107.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °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 527 distinct grid cells holding 1297 of the 1323 in-range records (6 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1304:1447 (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 25.00_-107.500, lapse-corrected -192 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 16 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast · 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 marker23.724, -106.614 · in the densest population, 585 records (41% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1432 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1297 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1323 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 396 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1408 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 109 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 1432 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph 1did not loadPachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph 2did not loadPachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph 3did not loadPachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph 4did not loadPachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph 5did not loadPachycereus pecten-aboriginum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) nasua, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Tillandsia ferrisiana Tillandsia ferrisiana Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzPisonia capitata Pisonia capitata Mexican devil's-claws Photo: CC0, author not statedGuaiacum coulteri Guaiacum coulteri Zygophyllaceae Photo: CC BY, Jonathan RodriguezJatropha peltata Jatropha peltata Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Adrian BojorquezIpomoea muricata Ipomoea muricata Lilac-bell Photo: CC0, author not statedCordia sonorae Cordia sonorae Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sue Carnahan

Other Pachycereus 5 in the reference

Pachycereus grandis Pachycereus grandis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezPachycereus pringlei Pachycereus pringlei Cardón Cactus Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzPachycereus schottii Pachycereus schottii Senita Cactus Photo: CC BY, Sula VanderplankPachycereus tepamo Pachycereus tepamo Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, P Gonzalez ZamoraPachycereus weberi Pachycereus weberi Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios Flores

Names & registers

Also known as Cereus pecten-aboriginum; Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum subsp. tehuantepecanus; Pachycereus tehuantepecanus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Engelm. ex S.Watson) Britton & Rose
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest +2
Wild records
1432 in range · 396 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_-107.500, lapse-corrected -192 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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