Species
+

Cereus hildmannianus K.Schum.

Andes organ pipe cactus, Hedge Cactus, hedge cactus, queen-of-the-night

Climate known 64 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Cereus hildmannianus is a species of cactus from southern South America. Its distribution is uncertain but probably includes Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. This cactus thrives in diverse habitats such as forests, savannas, and grasslands, preferring well-draining soils and demonstrating adaptability to both drought and occasional flooding.

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

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
K.Schum.
Native to
Bolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Southeast +4
Wild records
689 in range· 264 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1389mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 145 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–44DLI
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 cactus or succulent by the genus Cereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1389 mm a year, wettest February at 145 mm, driest August at 78 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
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.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Cereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1030 mm of 1389 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 10.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

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 1389 mm a year, wettest February at 145 mm, driest August at 78 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1389 mm a year at the habitat, 1030 mm of it October to May. Wettest month February at 145 mm, driest August at 78 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1148 mm to 1832 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 16 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 44 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 14, 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 1.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.6 °C, the absolute minimum -1.4 °C, 34 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.5 °C to 14.4 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

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. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 63% 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 18 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1389 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 423 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.2 °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°frost35.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 16–44RH 60–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 423 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 °C28 / 25–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–2924 / 21–2720 / 17–2418 / 14–2318 / 14–2420 / 15–2621 / 16–2724 / 19–2825 / 22–2927 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 18–2320 / 18–2319 / 17–2216 / 14–2013 / 11–1711 / 8–1510 / 8–1411 / 9–1512 / 10–1715 / 12–1817 / 14–2019 / 17–22
Rain mm144 / 89–264145 / 106–199133 / 102–172117 / 80–184114 / 61–14995 / 35–14086 / 29–13878 / 31–115100 / 60–160124 / 102–192128 / 102–179125 / 80–210
DLI42 / 36–4637 / 35–4033 / 31–3424 / 23–3019 / 17–2516 / 14–2318 / 15–2423 / 21–3028 / 26–3335 / 33–3740 / 36–4344 / 36–47
RH %61 / 56–6662 / 58–6662 / 59–6562 / 60–6462 / 60–6463 / 60–6562 / 58–6561 / 56–6461 / 56–6461 / 57–6460 / 56–6460 / 56–65

Each figure is the median across the 423 grid cells holding the 661 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 2493:2514 (-34.675, -54.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °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 423 distinct grid cells holding the 661 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2493:2514 (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 -34.50_-54.375, lapse-corrected -57 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3 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.
NativeBolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: France, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Canary Is., Assam, East Himalaya, India, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Vietnam, Hawaii
Kew's description“succulent tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.891, -54.788 · in the densest population, 275 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 689 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 264 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 221 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 28 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 2° block of the 689 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianusCereus hildmannianus

Photographs: (c) Cecilia Pombo Posente, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Paulo C. O. Cunha, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Cereus hildmannianus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The impact of early Quaternary climate change on the diversification and population dynamics of a South American cactus species
Gislaine Angélica Rodrigues Silva, Alexandre Antonelli, Anita Lendel, Evandro M. Moraes (2017) · Journal of Biogeography
Characterization of Natural Cellulosic Fiber from Cereus Hildmannianus
Senthil Ganesh Subramanian, R. Rajkumar, T. Ramkumar (2019) · Journal of Natural Fibers
The quarantine root‐knot nematode Meloidogyne enterolobii – a potential threat to Portugal and Europe
Duarte Santos, Isabel Abrantes, Carla Maleita (2019) · Plant Pathology
Edible films from mucilage of C ereus hildmannianus fruits: Development and characterization
Mayra Stéphanie Pascoal Damas, Valdir Aniceto Pereira, Rafael Kenji Nishihora, Mara Gabriela Novy Quadri (2017) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science
Cereus hildmannianus (K.) Schum. (Cactaceae): Ethnomedical uses, phytochemistry and biological activities
Éverton da Silva Santos, Arildo José Braz de Oliveira, María de Fátima Pires da Silva Machado, Claudete Aparecida Mangolin (2020) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Hypoglycaemic activity of biosynthesized copper oxide nanoparticles in alloxan‐induced diabetic Wister rats
Maimuna Bello Umar, Augustine Innalegwu Daniel, Jimoh Oladejo Tijani, Rebecca Olufemi Akinleye (2023) · Endocrinology Diabetes & Metabolism
Cactaceae no estado do Paraná, Brasil
André Soller, Patrícia Soffiatti, Alice Calvente, Renato Goldenberg (2014) · Rodriguésia
Viability and Developmental Time in Cactophilic Drosophila gouveai and Drosophila antonietae (Diptera: Drosophilidae) Are Dependent on the Cactus Host
Ignacio M. Soto, Maura Helena Manfrin, Fábio de Melo Sene, Esteban Hasson (2007) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Host-dependent phenotypic plasticity of aedeagus morphology in a pair of cactophilic siblingDrosophilaspecies of therepletagroup (Diptera, Drosophilidae)
Ignacio M. Soto, Maura Helena Manfrin, Esteban Hasson (2008) · Journal of Zoological Systematics & Evolutionary Research
Low-cost alternative for the bioproduction of bioactive phenolic compounds of callus cultures from Cereus hildmannianus (K.) Schum
Éverton da Silva Santos, Aline Savam, Márcia Regina Pereira Cabral, Juliana Cristina Castro (2022) · Journal of Biotechnology
Unveiling the germination requirements for Cereus hildmannianus (Cactaceae), a potential new crop from southern and southeastern Brazil
Rafael Becker, Leandro Dal Ri, Rosana Farias‐Singer, Rodrigo B. Singer (2020) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Sympatry and Asymmetric Introgression between the Cactophilic SpeciesDrosophila seridoandDrosophila antonietae(Diptera: Drosophilidae)
CBS Kokudai, F. M. Sene, Maura Helena Manfrin (2011) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America

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 Cereus 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 58 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.