55 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Pilosocereus gaumeri is a species of columnar cactus endemic to the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Its common name in Spanish is sabucán.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pilosocereus gaumeri", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the family Cactaceae 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 (739 mm of 1,001 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.6 °C against a yearly mean of 26.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.
Rain
1,001 mm in the median year at the habitat, 739 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 173 mm, driest month March at 24 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 850 mm to 1,174 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,007 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,001 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: 24 to 42 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 44).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.5 °C, the absolute minimum 11.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.8 °C to 20.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.0 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 64% 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 -5 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 family Cactaceae 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
Mean daily high from 28 °C in Jan and Dec to 35 °C in May; mean nightly low from 19 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 1,001 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 57 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 11.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 28 / 27–29 | 30 / 28–31 | 32 / 29–33 | 34 / 31–35 | 35 / 32–36 | 34 / 32–34 | 34 / 32–34 | 33 / 32–34 | 32 / 31–33 | 31 / 29–31 | 29 / 28–30 | 28 / 27–29 |
| Night °C | 19 / 19–20 | 20 / 20–21 | 21 / 21–22 | 23 / 22–23 | 24 / 24–25 | 25 / 24–25 | 24 / 24–25 | 24 / 24–25 | 24 / 24–25 | 23 / 22–24 | 21 / 21–22 | 20 / 19–21 |
| Rain mm | 31 / 27–46 | 28 / 23–38 | 24 / 18–39 | 29 / 21–43 | 68 / 54–93 | 157 / 121–171 | 155 / 116–165 | 151 / 119–183 | 173 / 148–217 | 103 / 91–127 | 45 / 38–60 | 37 / 32–51 |
| DLI | 26 / 25–27 | 31 / 30–32 | 37 / 36–38 | 42 / 41–43 | 42 / 40–44 | 39 / 37–41 | 41 / 39–43 | 39 / 38–42 | 35 / 34–37 | 30 / 30–32 | 27 / 26–28 | 24 / 23–25 |
| RH % | 59 / 57–60 | 57 / 56–60 | 55 / 54–58 | 55 / 54–59 | 56 / 55–60 | 61 / 59–63 | 61 / 59–64 | 62 / 60–65 | 64 / 63–65 | 62 / 61–63 | 60 / 59–61 | 59 / 58–61 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Oscar Orlando Vazquez Piña, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) chrisdt, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Parmentiera millspaughiana Bignoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández
Agave fourcroydes Mexican sisal Photo: CC BY, Katja Schulz Agave paniculata Asparagaceae 
Opuntia inaperta Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan Cruzado Cortés
Havardia albicans Huisache Photo: CC BY, Isaac Chacón
Diospyros anisandra Ebenaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, ferleyva_Other Pilosocereus 20 in the reference
Pilosocereus alensis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Adrian Bojorquez
Pilosocereus armatus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Alex Doyle
Pilosocereus arrabidae Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Pilosocereus azulensis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter A. Mansfeld
Pilosocereus brasiliensis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunoz
Pilosocereus catingicola Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated
Pilosocereus chrysacanthus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández
Pilosocereus chrysostele Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, stephen
Pilosocereus collinsii Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez
Pilosocereus curtisii Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la Luz
Pilosocereus fulvilanatus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, B. Phalan
Pilosocereus lanuginosus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Laura Gaudette all 21 ›Names & registers
Also known as Cephalocereus gaumeri; Cereus gaumeri; Pilocereus gaumeri; Pilosocereus polygonus subsp. gaumeri. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.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)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.00_-89.375, lapse-corrected -5 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.