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Stenocereus griseus; photograph (c) Lucas Kaminski, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Lucas Kaminski, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2013-02-21

Stenocereus griseus (Haw.) Buxb.

Tall candelabra cactus

Cactaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +10 · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

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Stenocereus griseus, photograph (c) Laura Gaudette, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stenocereus griseus, photograph (c) Laura Gaudette, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stenocereus griseus, photograph (c) Laura Gaudette, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stenocereus griseus, photograph (c) Laura Gaudette, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stenocereus griseus, photograph (c) Lucas Kaminski, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stenocereus griseus, photograph (c) johnyochum, some rights reserved (CC BY) 59 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.6°C
Record low 16.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
701mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, June to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Stenocereus griseus, also known as the Mexican organ pipe, dagger cactus, pitaya, and pitayo de mayo, is a species of cactus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Stenocereus griseus", 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 shrub or tree”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (548 mm of 734 mm) falls in June to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.2 °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, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

734 mm in the median year at the habitat, 548 mm of it June to November. Wettest month September at 114 mm, driest month March at 14 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 415 mm to 1,501 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 701 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 734 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: 31 to 41 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.6 °C, the absolute minimum 16.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.3 °C to 25.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.6 °C in May and June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.6 °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: 61 to 65% 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 -978 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 shrub or 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 Stenocereus griseus through the yearWarmest months May and June, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 23.1 °C; 734 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°37.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER16.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 31–41RH 61–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 228 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 °C26 / 23–3126 / 24–3127 / 26–3228 / 26–3229 / 27–3329 / 26–3228 / 25–3328 / 26–3328 / 25–3228 / 24–3027 / 24–3027 / 23–30
Night °C23 / 10–2523 / 11–2524 / 13–2524 / 16–2625 / 17–2625 / 18–2625 / 17–2625 / 17–2724 / 17–2724 / 15–2624 / 13–2623 / 11–25
Rain mm25 / 4–5618 / 5–7114 / 5–10430 / 14–15256 / 18–16676 / 20–17580 / 25–17083 / 27–190114 / 51–212101 / 47–22594 / 15–16343 / 11–107
DLI34 / 25–3537 / 30–3840 / 35–4241 / 33–4440 / 31–4340 / 31–4240 / 33–4339 / 35–4336 / 33–4033 / 30–3531 / 27–3331 / 24–33
RH %62 / 57–6662 / 55–6561 / 54–6663 / 55–6864 / 57–6864 / 59–6764 / 58–6764 / 58–6765 / 61–6865 / 59–6865 / 58–6863 / 57–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 228 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (800 records in those cells; 9 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 1735:2096 (3.225, -75.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.1 °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 228 distinct grid cells holding 800 of the 823 in-range records (9 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1735:2096 (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 3.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -978 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 425 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Venezuela, Colombia · 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 marker12.272, -69.055 · in the densest population, 675 records (75% of those in range)
Kew's description“succulent shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 898 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 800 of them in the land cells it reads, of 823 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 355 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 319 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 75 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 898 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 griseus, photograph 1did not loadStenocereus griseus, photograph 2did not loadStenocereus griseus, photograph 3did not loadStenocereus griseus, photograph 4did not loadStenocereus griseus, photograph 5did not loadStenocereus griseus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Laura Gaudette, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Lucas Kaminski, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) johnyochum, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Melocactus curvispinus Melocactus curvispinus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Laura GaudetteMandevilla boliviensis Mandevilla boliviensis White dipladenia Photo: CC BY-SA, KENPEIMorisonia flexuosa Morisonia flexuosa Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, Tournasol7Helicteres carthagenensis Helicteres carthagenensis Malvaceae Photo: CC0, lallenNeptunia plena Neptunia plena Water dead and awake Photo: CC BY, Steven BodzinAbutilon viscosum Abutilon viscosum Viscid Mallow Photo: CC BY, Tom Field

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 eruca Stenocereus eruca Creeping Devil Photo: CC0, author not statedStenocereus 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 Cactus eburneus; Cereus clavatus; Cereus deficiens; Cereus eburneus; Cereus eburneus var. clavatus and 22 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Haw.) Buxb.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +9
Wild records
898 in range · 355 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; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 19 at a zoo; 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 3.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -978 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 46 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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