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Stenocereus heptagonus; photograph avocat, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYavocat, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Stenocereus heptagonus (L.) Mottram

Spanish stenocereus

Cactaceae · Cuba, Dominican Republic +4 · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

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Stenocereus heptagonus, photograph avocat, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFStenocereus heptagonus, photograph Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFStenocereus heptagonus, photograph Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFStenocereus heptagonus, photograph Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFStenocereus heptagonus, photograph Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFStenocereus heptagonus, photograph Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.4°C
Record low 17.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,002mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–43DLI
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, May to June and August 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 heptagonus is a species of cactus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Stenocereus heptagonus", 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 (660 mm of 940 mm) falls in May to June and August to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.1 °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

940 mm in the median year at the habitat, 660 mm of it May to June and August to November. Wettest month October at 142 mm, driest month February at 30 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 686 mm to 1,273 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,002 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 940 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: 29 to 43 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 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.4 °C, the absolute minimum 17.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.1 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 19.4 °C to 23.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.6 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.4 °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: 60 to 63% 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 -472 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 heptagonus through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 22.1 °C; 940 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°34.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 29–43RH 60–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 92 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 °C28 / 27–2928 / 26–2928 / 27–3028 / 27–3129 / 28–3130 / 28–3231 / 29–3331 / 29–3430 / 29–3329 / 28–3129 / 28–3028 / 27–29
Night °C22 / 19–2322 / 19–2322 / 20–2423 / 21–2424 / 22–2525 / 22–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 22–2624 / 21–2523 / 20–24
Rain mm31 / 18–8030 / 19–5447 / 34–6767 / 47–108130 / 79–16789 / 59–12265 / 38–9594 / 67–129127 / 93–177142 / 103–21278 / 64–13140 / 30–76
DLI30 / 29–3235 / 33–3639 / 36–4042 / 39–4341 / 38–4343 / 40–4443 / 41–4542 / 40–4339 / 37–4034 / 33–3530 / 29–3229 / 28–30
RH %60 / 59–6360 / 59–6360 / 59–6361 / 59–6462 / 60–6562 / 59–6561 / 57–6461 / 58–6462 / 60–6563 / 62–6662 / 60–6561 / 59–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 92 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (181 records in those cells; 7 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 1434:2193 (18.275, -70.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °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 92 distinct grid cells holding 181 of the 200 in-range records (7 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1434:2193 (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 18.50_-70.625, lapse-corrected -472 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 59 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.
NativeCuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico · 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 marker18.407, -71.626 · in the densest population, 134 records (60% 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 225 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 181 of them in the land cells it reads, of 200 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 66 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 9 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 25 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 225 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 heptagonus, photograph 1did not loadStenocereus heptagonus, photograph 2did not loadStenocereus heptagonus, photograph 3did not loadStenocereus heptagonus, photograph 4did not loadStenocereus heptagonus, photograph 5did not loadStenocereus heptagonus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: avocat, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5).

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

Melocactus harlowii Melocactus harlowii Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Roberto JovelSarcomphalus domingensis Sarcomphalus domingensis Thorn Photo: CC BY, Mario GuzmánConsolea moniliformis Consolea moniliformis Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHarrisia divaricata Harrisia divaricata Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedLeuenbergeria quisqueyana Leuenbergeria quisqueyana Bayahíbe Rose Photo: CC BY-SA, Djibo ZanzotAgave albescens Agave albescens Guantanamo Bay Agave Photo: CC BY, amantedarmanin

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 griseus Stenocereus griseus Tall candelabra cactus Photo: CC BY, Laura GaudetteStenocereus gummosus Stenocereus gummosus Galloping Cactus Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroStenocereus 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 fimbriatus; Cactus heptagonus; Cactus hystrix; Cactus hyxtrix; Cephalocereus swartzii and 20 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(L.) Mottram
Native to
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti +3
Wild records
225 in range · 66 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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 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 18.50_-70.625, lapse-corrected -472 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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