Selenicereus pteranthus (Princess of the Night)

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Selenicereus pteranthus, photographed by Andrew Durso — fig. a Andrew Durso, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-06-06 / obs. 77253849

Selenicereus pteranthus, photographed by Ben Machado — fig. b Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56209765

Selenicereus pteranthus, photographed by Benjamin Burgunder — fig. c Benjamin Burgunder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 29404371

Selenicereus pteranthus, photographed by Brandon Corder — fig. e Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59671131

Selenicereus pteranthus, photographed by Claire Herzog — fig. f Claire Herzog, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 116067570

Selenicereus pteranthus, photographed by novvictan — fig. g novvictan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 103303401

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 8 botanical countries

Native distribution of Selenicereus pteranthus, 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.

Region	TDWG code	Continent
Bahamas	BAH	SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize	BLZ
Cayman Is.	CAY
Cuba	CUB
Dominican Republic	DOM
Mexico Gulf	MXG	NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Northeast	MXE
Mexico Southeast	MXT

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 23 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 boeckmannii Otto ex Salm-Dyck
Cereus grandiflorus var. ophites K.Schum.
Cereus grusonianus Weing.
Cereus irradians Lem.
Cereus kewensis Worsley
Cereus kunthianus Hort.Berol. ex Salm-Dyck
Cereus macdonaldiae Hook.
Cereus nycticalus Link ex A.Dietr.
Cereus pteranthus Link ex A.Dietr.
Cereus rothii Weing.
Cereus vaupelii Weing.
Selenicereus boeckmannii (Otto ex Salm-Dyck) Britton & Rose
Selenicereus grandiflorus var. irradians (Lem.) Borg
Selenicereus grandiflorus var. telli Borg
Selenicereus grusonianus (Weing.) A.Berger
Selenicereus kunthianus (Hort.Berol. ex Salm-Dyck) Britton & Rose
Selenicereus macdonaldeae (Hook.) Britton & Rose
Selenicereus macdonaldiae (Hook.) Britton & Rose
Selenicereus macdonaldiae var. grusonianus (Weing.) Backeb.
Selenicereus nycticalus (Link ex A.Dietr.) W.T.Marshall
Selenicereus pteranthus f. macdonaldiae (Hook.) Ralf Bauer
Selenicereus rothii (Weing.) A.Berger
Selenicereus vaupelii (Weing.) A.Berger

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.
Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
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.