Selenicereus grandiflorus(L.) Britton & Rose

Queen of the Nightqueen of the night

WFO wfo-0000438959 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by Tereso Hernández Morales
fig. a Tereso Hernández Morales, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-20 / obs. 189731659
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by caymanmatt
fig. b caymanmatt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152591717
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by caymanmatt
fig. c caymanmatt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152279050
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by Cenoteando
fig. d Cenoteando, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 140688545
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil
fig. e Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139522412
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil
fig. f Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 138785473
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil
fig. g Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139588246
Selenicereus grandiflorus, photographed by Cenoteando
fig. h Cenoteando, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 139369290

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 14 botanical countries

Regions where Selenicereus grandiflorus is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua Mexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeCubaDominican RepublicGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaragua BahamasCayman Is.
Native distribution of Selenicereus grandiflorus, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Cayman Is. CAY
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
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.

Also published as 37 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.

  • Cactus grandiflorus L.
  • Cereus antoinii Pfeiff.
  • Cereus coniflorus Weing.
  • Cereus donkelaarii Salm-Dyck
  • Cereus grandiflorus (L.) Mill.
  • Cereus grandiflorus var. affinis Salm-Dyck
  • Cereus grandiflorus var. armatus (K.Schum.) L.D.Benson
  • Cereus grandiflorus var. minor Salm-Dyck ex C.F.Först.
  • Cereus grandiflorus var. uranos (B.Schulz) K.Schum.
  • Cereus grandiflorus var. uranos (B.Schulz) Schelle
  • Cereus grandiflorus var. uranus Riccob.
  • Cereus hallensis Weing. ex Borg
  • Cereus hondurensis K.Schum. ex Weing.
  • Cereus jalapaensis Vaupel
  • Cereus nycticalus var. armatus K.Schum.
  • Cereus obtusus Pfeiff.
  • Cereus ophites Lem.
  • Cereus paradisiacus Vaupel
  • Cereus rosaceus Pfeiff.
  • Cereus roseanus Vaupel
  • Cereus scandens var. minor Boerh. ex Arendt
  • Cereus uranos B.Schulz
  • Cereus urbanianus Gürke & Weing.
  • Selenicereus coniflorus (Weing.) Britton & Rose

and 13 more.

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.