no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2024-06-05

Selenicereus anthonyanus (Alexander) D.R.Hunt

Fishbone cactus, Rick Rack Cactus

Climate known 41 photographs Other epiphyte

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

Selenicereus anthonyanus is a cactus species native to southern Mexico. It is grown as an ornamental because of its nocturnal flowers and unusual, leaf-like stems. Common names include fishbone cactus, rickrack cactus, zig-zag cactus and St. Anthony's rickrack, and is sometimes referred to as an orchid cactus.

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

About the genus · Selenicereus

Selenicereus, from Ancient Greek σελήνη (selḗnē), meaning "moon", and Latin cēreus, meaning "candle", sometimes known as moonlight cactus, is a genus of epiphytic, lithophytic, and terrestrial cacti, found in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. The term night-blooming cereus is also sometimes used, but this is also used for many night-blooming cacti, including Epiphyllum and Peniocereus. In 2017, the genus Hylocereus was brought into synonymy with Selenicereus. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Selenicereus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family

Cactaceae

Described by

(Alexander) D.R.Hunt

Native to

Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast

Wild records

48 in range· 17 open

At a glance

Warmest month

28°C

Apr, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

1797mm/yr

12 wet months · peak Jun 302 mm (CHELSA)

Light

25–40DLI

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 other epiphyte by the genus Selenicereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1797 mm a year, wettest June at 302 mm, driest February at 53 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 6.7 °C habitat night).

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 Cryptocereus anthonyanus Alexander.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Selenicereus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October 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 (1287 mm of 1797 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.6 °C against a yearly mean of 20.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 1797 mm a year, wettest June at 302 mm, driest February at 53 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1797 mm a year at the habitat, 1287 mm of it June to October. Wettest month June at 302 mm, driest February at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1092 mm to 2688 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: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 6.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.7 °C, the absolute minimum -1.5 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.3 °C to 17.3 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 6.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Selenicereus, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 10 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 68% 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

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 19 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

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	23 / 20–25	24 / 21–27	27 / 23–28	28 / 25–30	28 / 26–31	26 / 24–29	26 / 24–28	26 / 24–29	25 / 23–28	24 / 22–27	23 / 22–26	23 / 20–25
Night °C	13 / 10–17	13 / 11–18	15 / 12–19	17 / 14–20	18 / 15–21	18 / 16–22	18 / 16–21	18 / 16–21	18 / 16–21	17 / 14–20	15 / 12–19	13 / 11–18
Rain mm	67 / 14–125	53 / 10–98	53 / 7–81	67 / 23–88	130 / 61–161	302 / 201–361	255 / 182–317	241 / 198–366	300 / 211–465	189 / 108–327	81 / 27–196	59 / 9–153
DLI	26 / 24–32	31 / 29–37	37 / 35–42	40 / 38–44	40 / 38–43	36 / 33–38	37 / 34–39	37 / 33–38	33 / 29–34	30 / 27–32	27 / 25–31	25 / 23–30
RH %	67 / 57–69	64 / 55–67	61 / 54–66	61 / 55–66	64 / 56–67	67 / 63–70	66 / 63–71	67 / 63–71	68 / 65–71	67 / 64–71	67 / 61–71	68 / 59–70

Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells holding the 20 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 1411:1662 (19.425, -96.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.7 °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 19 distinct grid cells holding the 20 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1411:1662 (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 19.50_-96.875, lapse-corrected -156 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 977 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast

Kew's description“succulent epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Map marker20.048, -97.502 · in the densest population, 35 records (73% of those in range)

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 48 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 17 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 544 km away. 80 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 48 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Juliana, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) chrisdt, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ericson Cernawsky Igual, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Occurrence Download