Species
+

Myrtillocactus geometrizans (Mart. ex Pfeiff.) Console

Bilberry Cactus, Blue Flame, Blue Myrtle-cactus, Garambullo

Climate known 43 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

Myrtillocactus geometrizans is a species of cactus in the genus Myrtillocactus, native to central and northern Mexico.

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

About the genus · Myrtillocactus

Myrtillocactus is a genus of cacti. The genus is found from Mexico to Guatemala. The genus is best known with Myrtillocactus geometrizans.

Text from Wikipedia, “Myrtillocactus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Mart. ex Pfeiff.) Console
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +2
Wild records
1686 in range· 480 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
May, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
522mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 104 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–46DLI
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 Cactaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 522 mm a year, wettest July at 104 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.3 °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.

Also known as Cactus geometrizans Mart.; Cereus aquicaulensis Pfeiff.; Cereus garambello Haage; Cereus garambello Haage ex C.F.Först.; Cereus geometrizans Mart. and 20 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by Cactaceae, which is usually but not always 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: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September 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 (367 mm of 522 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.7 °C against a yearly mean of 18.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 522 mm a year, wettest July at 104 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

522 mm a year at the habitat, 367 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 104 mm, driest December at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 417 mm to 746 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: 29 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 46 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 -0.3 °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 -0.3 °C, the absolute minimum -6.6 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.5 °C to 10.6 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.3 °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: 50 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 21 °C in Jan to 28 °C in May; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 522 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 745 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -6.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.2 °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°frost33.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-6.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 29–46RH 50–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 745 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 °C21 / 19–2423 / 21–2526 / 24–2828 / 25–3028 / 25–3126 / 23–2924 / 22–2825 / 22–2823 / 21–2723 / 20–2623 / 20–2522 / 20–24
Night °C7 / 6–118 / 6–1210 / 8–1412 / 10–1614 / 12–1815 / 13–1914 / 12–1814 / 12–1814 / 12–1812 / 10–1610 / 8–138 / 6–11
Rain mm15 / 9–2111 / 9–148 / 5–1222 / 9–2942 / 30–5985 / 60–137104 / 76–16889 / 57–14489 / 67–13740 / 31–6110 / 8–187 / 5–12
DLI31 / 27–3337 / 32–3943 / 39–4546 / 43–4845 / 43–4841 / 39–4440 / 37–4239 / 37–4234 / 32–3733 / 30–3632 / 28–3429 / 26–31
RH %55 / 49–5953 / 47–5850 / 44–5651 / 44–5655 / 48–5960 / 55–6462 / 58–6762 / 58–6663 / 59–6861 / 55–6557 / 51–6255 / 50–60

Each figure is the median across the 745 grid cells holding the 1644 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 1379:1596 (21.025, -100.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °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 745 distinct grid cells holding the 1644 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1379:1596 (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 21.00_-100.000, lapse-corrected +186 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2096 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 Northwest, Mexico Southwest· introduced: Spain
Kew's description“tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.929, -100.394 · in the densest population, 1190 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1686 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 480 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 35 km away. 12 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 42 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 of the 1686 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Myrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizansMyrtillocactus geometrizans

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandino Guerrero, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tereso Hernández Morales, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Oscar Israel Rodríguez Ortiz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Gustavo ZaRo, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) José Belem Hernández Díaz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

The Cacti Microbiome: Interplay between Habitat-Filtering and Host-Specificity
Citlali Fonseca-García, Devin Coleman‐Derr, Etzel Garrido, Axel Visel (2016) · Frontiers in Microbiology
Insect growth regulatory effects of some extracts and sterols from Myrtillocactus geometrizans (Cactaceae) against Spodoptera frugiperda and Tenebrio molitor
Carlos L. Céspedes, Juan Rodrigo Salazar, Mariano Martínez‐Vázquez, Eduardo Aranda (2005) · Phytochemistry
Stability of Betalain Pigments from a Cactacea Fruit
Rosalía Reynoso, Fatima Angelyna J. Garcia, D. Morales, Elvira González de Mejı́a (1997) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Functional Signatures of the Epiphytic Prokaryotic Microbiome of Agaves and Cacti
Víctor M. Flores‐Núñez, Citlali Fonseca-García, Damaris Desgarennes, Emiley A. Eloe‐Fadrosh (2020) · Frontiers in Microbiology
The Effect of an Edible Coating with Tomato Oily Extract on the Physicochemical and Antioxidant Properties of Garambullo (Myrtillocactus geometrizans) Fruits
César Uriel López-Palestina, César Leobardo Aguirre-Mancilla, Juan Carlos Raya-Pérez, Juan Gabriel Ramírez-Pimentel (2018) · Agronomy
Effects of maturity stage and storage on cactus berry (Myrtillocactus geometrizans) phenolics, vitamin C, betalains and their antioxidant properties
María Guadalupe Herrera-Hernández, Fidel Guevara‐Lara, Rosalía Reynoso‐Camacho, Salvador Horacio Guzmán-Maldonado (2011) · Food Chemistry
Mitochondrial Permeability Transition as Target of Anticancer Drugs
Lisa Dalla Via, Aída Nelly García‐Argáez, Mariano Martínez‐Vázquez, Silvia Grancara (2014) · Current Pharmaceutical Design
Effect of a sodium caseinate edible coating on berry cactus fruit (Myrtillocactus geometrizans) phytochemicals
Julieta Correa-Betanzo, Jissy K. Jacob, Cristina Pérez-Pérez, Gopinadhan Paliyath (2010) · Food Research International
Estabilidad de las betalaínas extraídas del garambullo (Myrtillocactus geometrizans) / Stability of betalains extracted from garambullo (Myrtillocactus geometrizans)
F.A. García Barrera, C.R. Reynoso, Elvira González de Mejı́a (1998) · Food Science and Technology International
Growth and ecophysiology of succulent seedlings under the protection of nurse plants in the Southern Chihuahuan Desert
Reyes Pérez-Sánchez, Joel Flores, Enrique Jurado, Claudia González‐Salvatierra (2015) · Ecosphere
Use of columnar cacti in the Tehuacán Valley, Mexico: perspectives for sustainable management of non-timber forest products
Edgar Pérez‐Negrón, Patricia Dávila, Alejandro Casas (2014) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

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.

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 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.