Flora of North America species comparison

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Acanthocereus tetragonus

barbed-wire cactus, chaco, triangle cactus
Habit Shrubs, clambering or arching-reclining, branched near base, sometimes with well-developed trunks.
Stems

dark green, growing to 200 cm per season;

ribs from base to rib crest 3–5 cm, less than 1 cm thick.
Spines

abruptly thickened at base, extremely variable.
Flowers

14–20 cm;

flower tube 8–15 cm, ± tuberculate, areoles few, usually 1 spine per areole;

outer tepals narrowly lanceolate to linear, 3.5–4 cm, apex acuminate;

inner tepals broadly linear, 3.5–4.5 cm, apex acuminate;

ovary with small scales and usually 3–5 diverging spines per areole.
Fruits

bright red, ovoid to oblong, 30–80(–100) mm, slightly tuberculate, shiny, edible, sweet.
2n

= 22 [as A. pentagonus (Linnaeus) Britton & Rose].

Acanthocereus tetragonus
Phenology Flowering mid summer–fall.
Habitat Sandy soils of dense thickets, hammocks, bottomlands of coastal areas
Elevation 0-10 m (0-0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; TX; Mexico; Central America; West Indies; n South America [Introduced Pacific Islands (Hawaii)]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The Florida populations have been called Acanthocereus floridanus but now appear to be the northernmost variants of the highly variable species A. tetragonus, which occurs throughout the Caribbean region (D. R. Hunt 1991).

The common name “triangle cactus” refers to the mature stems in cross section; the epithet “tetragonus” alludes to the juvenile stems, which often have four angles.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 155.
Parent taxa Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Acanthocereus
Synonyms Cactus tetragonus, A. floridanus, A. pentagonus, Cereus pentagonus, Cereus tetragonus
Name authority (Linnaeus) Hummelinck: Succulenta (Netherlands) 20: 165. (1938)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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