Species
+

Selenicereus undatus (Haw.) D.R.Hunt

Nightblooming Cactus, dragon fruit

Climate known 74 photographs Other epiphyte
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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

Selenicereus undatus, the white-fleshed pitahaya, is a species of the genus Selenicereus in the family Cactaceae and is the most cultivated species in the genus. It is used both as an ornamental vine and as a fruit crop, the pitahaya or dragon fruit.

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

About the genus · Selenicereus

Selenicereus, from Ancient Greek σελήνη (selḗnē), meaning "moon", and Latin cēreus, meaning "candle", sometimes known as moonlight cactus, is a genus of epiphytic, lithophytic, and terrestrial cacti, found in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. The term night-blooming cereus is also sometimes used, but this is also used for many night-blooming cacti, including Epiphyllum and Peniocereus. In 2017, the genus Hylocereus was brought into synonymy with Selenicereus. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Selenicereus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Haw.) D.R.Hunt
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +5
Wild records
433 in range· 177 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1158mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Sep 215 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–42DLI
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 other epiphyte by the genus Selenicereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1158 mm a year, wettest September at 215 mm, driest March at 23 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 8.2 °C habitat night).
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 tricostatus Rol.-Goss.; Cereus undatus Haw.; Cereus undatus Pfeiff.; Cereus undulatus D.Dietr.; Harrisia undata Britton and 5 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Selenicereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (880 mm of 1158 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.9 °C against a yearly mean of 23.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 1158 mm a year, wettest September at 215 mm, driest March at 23 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1158 mm a year at the habitat, 880 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 215 mm, driest March at 23 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 619 mm to 2074 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 25 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 8.2 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.2 °C, the absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.4 °C to 19.8 °C), warmest day 30.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 8.2 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Selenicereus, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 10 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 66% 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 25 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1158 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 351 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 25–42RH 57–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 351 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 °C25 / 21–2926 / 23–3028 / 25–3230 / 26–3430 / 26–3529 / 24–3328 / 23–3329 / 23–3328 / 22–3227 / 22–3026 / 22–2925 / 21–29
Night °C15 / 7–2016 / 8–2117 / 10–2219 / 12–2321 / 13–2521 / 14–2521 / 13–2521 / 14–2521 / 13–2419 / 12–2318 / 10–2216 / 8–21
Rain mm30 / 8–7325 / 8–5523 / 6–4936 / 12–6586 / 38–130180 / 116–302179 / 111–324179 / 106–328215 / 106–372127 / 44–25746 / 10–11632 / 5–79
DLI27 / 22–3332 / 27–3838 / 33–4442 / 37–4741 / 38–4638 / 34–4138 / 35–4138 / 34–4033 / 30–3631 / 28–3428 / 25–3325 / 22–32
RH %60 / 52–6659 / 50–6557 / 48–6357 / 48–6360 / 51–6563 / 59–6864 / 60–6864 / 60–6866 / 62–6964 / 59–6761 / 56–6660 / 53–66

Each figure is the median across the 351 grid cells holding the 430 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 1361:1620 (21.925, -98.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.4 °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 351 distinct grid cells holding the 430 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1361:1620 (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 22.00_-98.750, lapse-corrected -66 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 63 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras· introduced: Baleares, Sardegna, Sicilia, Tunisia, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaya, Niue, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Hawaii, Florida, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Colombia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Kew's description“succulent epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.375, -97.308 · in the densest population, 350 records (81% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 433 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 177 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 148 km away. 1231 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 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 4° block of the 433 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Selenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatusSelenicereus undatus

Photographs: (c) Vítor Jorge, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Greg III Espera, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Selenicereus undatus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Pattern of the GRAS Gene Family in Pitaya (Selenicereus undatus L.)
Qamar U. Zaman, Muhammad Azhar Hussain, Latif Ullah Khan, Jian-Peng Cui (2022) · Biology
Impact of a biostimulant enriched in betalain degradation products on ROS signaling, proline accumulation, and phytohormone homeostasis
Noemi Gatti, Graziella Serio, Carla Gentile, Cinzia M. Bertea (2024) · Current Plant Biology
Effects of gibberellic acid concentration and fruit maturation stage on seed germination and vigor of pitahaya seedlings
Tatiane Paes dos Santos, Marco Eustáquio de Sá, Emely da Silva Malagutti, Milena dos Santos Pinto (2022) · Brazilian Journal of Biology
Millicompost: Sustainable substrate for the production of dragon fruit seedlings (Selenicereus undatus)
Luiz Fernando de Sousa Antunes, André Felipe de Sousa Vaz, Maura Santos Reis de Andrade da Silva, Maria Elizabeth Fernandes Correia (2021) · Cleaner Engineering and Technology
Morphological characterization of the red dragon fruit - Selenicereus undatus (Haw.) D.R. Hunt – under growing conditions in the municipality of San Jerónimo (Antioquia, Colombia)
Jorge Andrés Betancur González, Sandra B. Muriel, Elena Paola González J. (2020) · Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín

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 Selenicereus 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried 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 2026-09-19; 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 115 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.