Selenicereus monacanthus(Lem.) D.R.Hunt

Nightblooming Cereus

WFO wfo-0001434099 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

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.

Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Sue Carnahan
fig. a Sue Carnahan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-12 / obs. 177383268
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by dariapi
fig. b dariapi, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 65055041
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. c Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75148199
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. d Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75145297
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Sue Carnahan
fig. e Sue Carnahan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177383277
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. f Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170652043
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Steven Bodzin
fig. g Steven Bodzin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30612190
Selenicereus monacanthus, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. h Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170652024

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 9 botanical countries

Regions where Selenicereus monacanthus is native: Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles ColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorNicaraguaPanamáPeruTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Venezuelan Antilles
Native distribution of Selenicereus monacanthus, 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
Colombia CLM SOUTHERN AMERICA
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA

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 19 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 extensus Salm-Dyck ex DC.
  • Cereus lemairei Hook.
  • Cereus lemoinei Möllers
  • Cereus monacanthus Lem.
  • Cereus monacanthus Cels ex K.Schum.
  • Cereus polyrhizus F.A.C.Weber
  • Cereus scandens Salm-Dyck
  • Cereus schomburgkii Otto ex K.Schum.
  • Cereus trinitatensis Lem. & Herm.
  • Cereus venezuelensis (Britton & Rose) Werderm.
  • Hylocereus estebanensis Backeb.
  • Hylocereus lemairei (Hook.) Britton & Rose
  • Hylocereus monacanthus (Lem.) Britton & Rose
  • Hylocereus peruvianus Backeb.
  • Hylocereus polyrhizus (F.A.C.Weber) Britton & Rose
  • Hylocereus scandens (Salm-Dyck) Backeb.
  • Hylocereus trinitatensis (Lem. & Herm.) A.Berger
  • Hylocereus venezuelensis Britton & Rose
  • Wilmattea venezuelensis (Britton & Rose) Croizat

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.