Epiphyllum hookeriHaw.

Nightblooming CactusNopalillo de Hookerclimbing cactus

WFO wfo-0000670187 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Epiphyllum hookeri, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. a Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2020-03-11 / obs. 63919627
Epiphyllum hookeri, photographed by Mauricio Soto David
fig. b Mauricio Soto David, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56155877
Epiphyllum hookeri, photographed by Carlos A. Padrón P.
fig. c Carlos A. Padrón P., CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 108497521
Epiphyllum hookeri, photographed by Carlos A. Padrón P.
fig. d Carlos A. Padrón P., CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 108496810
Epiphyllum hookeri, photographed by Carlos A. Padrón P.
fig. e Carlos A. Padrón P., CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 108497518

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 15 botanical countries

Regions where Epiphyllum hookeri is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela
Native distribution of Epiphyllum hookeri, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 38 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.2 °C 18.8 °C 24.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.2 °C 30.5 °C 33.9 °C
Annual rainfall 650 mm 1,998 mm 4,241 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 32 mm 158 mm 506 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 38 research-grade observations of Epiphyllum hookeri that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 21 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cereus hookeri (Haw.) Pfeiff.
  • Cereus marginatus Salm-Dyck
  • Epiphyllum columbiense (F.A.C.Weber) Dodson & A.H.Gentry
  • Epiphyllum guatemalense Britton & Rose
  • Epiphyllum phyllanthus subsp. guatemalense (Britton & Rose) U.Guzmán
  • Epiphyllum phyllanthus subsp. hookeri (Haw.) U.Guzmán
  • Epiphyllum phyllanthus var. columbiense (F.A.C.Weber) Backeb.
  • Epiphyllum phyllanthus var. guatemalense (Britton & Rose) Kimnach
  • Epiphyllum phyllanthus var. hookeri (Haw.) Kimnach
  • Epiphyllum phyllanthus var. pittieri (F.A.C.Weber) Kimnach
  • Epiphyllum pittieri (F.A.C.Weber) Britton & Rose
  • Epiphyllum stenopetalum (C.F.Först.) Britton & Rose
  • Epiphyllum strictum (Lem.) Britton & Rose
  • Phyllocactus guatemalensis (Britton & Rose) Vaupel
  • Phyllocactus hookeri (Haw.) Salm-Dyck
  • Phyllocactus hookeri (Haw.) Walp.
  • Phyllocactus marginatus Salm-Dyck
  • Phyllocactus phyllanthus var. columbiensis F.A.C.Weber
  • Phyllocactus pittieri F.A.C.Weber
  • Phyllocactus stenopetalus C.F.Först.
  • Phyllocactus strictus Lem.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.