Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations
This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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.
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 2 botanical countries
| Region | TDWG code | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina Northwest | AGW | SOUTHERN AMERICA |
| Bolivia | BOL |
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 75 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | 4.0 °C | 6.6 °C | 8.3 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 22.0 °C | 25.9 °C | 28.5 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 500 mm | 835 mm | 1,440 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 8 mm | 19 mm | 44 mm |
It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 75 research-grade observations of Pfeiffera ianthothele 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 18 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 ianthothele Monv.
- Cereus janthothele Monv. ex Salm-Dyck
- Hariota cereiformis Kuntze
- Lepismium erectum (F.Ritter) Süpplie
- Lepismium ianothele (Monv.) Barthlott
- Lepismium ianthothele (Monv.) Barthlott
- Lepismium mataralense (F.Ritter) Süpplie
- Lepismium mataralense var. floccosum (F.Ritter) Süpplie
- Pfeiffera cereiformis Salm-Dyck
- Pfeiffera erecta F.Ritter
- Pfeiffera gracilis F.Ritter
- Pfeiffera ianthothele var. boliviana F.Ritter
- Pfeiffera ianthothele var. tarijensis F.Ritter
- Pfeiffera mataralensis F.Ritter
- Pfeiffera mataralensis var. floccosa F.Ritter
- Pfeiffera multigona Cárdenas
- Rhipsalis cereiformis (Salm-Dyck) C.F.Först.
- Rhipsalis ianthothele (Monv.) K.Brandegee
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- 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.