Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Stenocereus eruca; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2025-11-25

Stenocereus eruca (Brandegee) A.C.Gibson & K.E.Horak

Creeping Devil

Cactaceae · Mexico Northwest · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Stenocereus eruca, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedStenocereus eruca, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedStenocereus eruca, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedStenocereus eruca, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedStenocereus eruca, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedStenocereus eruca, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 85 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
8.2°C
Record low 4.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
128mm
1 month of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–52DLI
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 December to January and August to October, 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

Stenocereus eruca, commonly known as the creeping devil, is a member of the family Cactaceae. It is one of the most distinctive cacti, a member of the relatively small genus Stenocereus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Stenocereus eruca", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Stenocereus

Stenocereus, from Ancient Greek στενός, meaning "narrow", and Latin cēreus, meaning "candle", is a genus of columnar or tree-like cacti from the Baja California Peninsula and other parts of Mexico, Arizona in the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Venezuela, and the West Indies. The genus has been enlarged by the addition of species from several other genera. A close relative is the peculiar chinoa or chende cactus, Polaskia chende.

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

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (94 mm of 123 mm) falls in December to January and August to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.0 °C against a yearly mean of 21.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to April and June to July.

Rain

123 mm in the median year at the habitat, 94 mm of it December to January and August to October. Wettest month September at 25 mm, driest months (2 at 0 mm); 4 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 113 mm to 178 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 128 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 123 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: 26 to 52 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 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 8.2 °C, the absolute minimum 4.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.0 °C to 15.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.9 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.2 °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: 54 to 59% 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 -277 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 Stenocereus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”. 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 Stenocereus eruca through the yearWarmest months August and September, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 13.1 °C; 123 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°42.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter01020304050mm rainDLI 26–52RH 54–59%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 28 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 °C23 / 20–2523 / 20–2624 / 20–2725 / 20–2926 / 20–3128 / 22–3431 / 25–3632 / 27–3632 / 28–3429 / 26–3226 / 23–2823 / 21–25
Night °C13 / 11–1613 / 11–1614 / 12–1615 / 13–1616 / 14–1718 / 17–1822 / 21–2224 / 23–2424 / 22–2520 / 18–2217 / 14–1914 / 11–17
Rain mm17 / 14–238 / 8–94 / 3–510 / 0–10 / 0–17 / 5–1323 / 15–4125 / 19–4310 / 6–199 / 7–1019 / 17–20
DLI28 / 27–2834 / 33–3442 / 42–4349 / 48–4952 / 51–5352 / 51–5248 / 48–4945 / 44–4540 / 40–4036 / 36–3730 / 29–3026 / 25–26
RH %54 / 51–6154 / 50–6356 / 50–6657 / 49–6859 / 50–7359 / 49–7459 / 51–7459 / 53–7359 / 55–6757 / 52–6455 / 51–6254 / 51–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 28 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (31 records in those cells; 4 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 1282:1358 (25.875, -112.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.7 °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 28 distinct grid cells holding 31 of the 35 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1282:1358 (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 26.00_-111.875, lapse-corrected -277 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 55 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 Northwest · 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 marker24.942, -112.06 · in the densest population, 414 records (98% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 423 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 31 of them in the land cells it reads, of 35 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 105 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 25 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 388 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 423 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Stenocereus eruca, photograph 1did not loadStenocereus eruca, photograph 2did not loadStenocereus eruca, photograph 3did not loadStenocereus eruca, photograph 4did not loadStenocereus eruca, photograph 5did not loadStenocereus eruca, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

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

Lippia fastigiata Lippia fastigiata Verbenaceae Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzStenocereus gummosus Stenocereus gummosus Galloping Cactus Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroEuphorbia ceroderma Euphorbia ceroderma Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sula VanderplankCylindropuntia cholla Cylindropuntia cholla Baja California Cholla Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroAmbrosia bryantii Ambrosia bryantii Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Juan Cruzado CortésEuphorbia lomelii Euphorbia lomelii Slipper Plant Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez Romero

Other Stenocereus 15 in the reference

Stenocereus alamosensis Stenocereus alamosensis Octopus cactus Photo: CC BY-SA, Adrian BojorquezStenocereus beneckei Stenocereus beneckei Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresStenocereus chacalapensis Stenocereus chacalapensis Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStenocereus griseus Stenocereus griseus Tall candelabra cactus Photo: CC BY, Laura GaudetteStenocereus gummosus Stenocereus gummosus Galloping Cactus Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroStenocereus heptagonus Stenocereus heptagonus Spanish stenocereus Photo: CC BY, avocatStenocereus huastecorum Stenocereus huastecorum Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Ulises PinedoStenocereus martinezii Stenocereus martinezii Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStenocereus montanus Stenocereus montanus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Adrian BojorquezStenocereus pruinosus Stenocereus pruinosus Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStenocereus queretaroensis Stenocereus queretaroensis Pitaya de Queretaro Photo: CC BY, Diana S. Angeles CruzStenocereus standleyi Stenocereus standleyi Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cereus eruca; Lemaireocereus eruca; Machaerocereus eruca; Rathbunia eruca. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Brandegee) A.C.Gibson & K.E.Horak
Native to
Mexico Northwest
Wild records
423 in range · 105 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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; 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 26.00_-111.875, lapse-corrected -277 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Stenocereus eruca (Brandegee) A.C.Gibson & K.E.Horak (the item's: IPNI 138580-1, POWO 244632-2)
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…