PICTURES ARE REPRESENTATIONS OF ACTUAL ITEMS RECEIVED.
This tree-like cactus can grow up to 9 m tall, with stems up to 12 cm in diameter. Depending on the cactus, the color of the fruit varies from white, yellow, red, and purple being the hardest to find.
Origin and Habitat: The native distribution of Stenocereus griseus is in coastal Venezuela in the Falcon-Lara complex. Also in the intra-Andean arid patches of Táchira, and Mérida states and adjacent islands, but now subspontaneous and broadly naturalized after abondoned cultivation throughout Mexico (Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatán), Colombia, Netherland Antilles (Bonaire), Curaçao; Aruba; Sint Eustatius and Saba (Saba, Sint Eustatius); Saint Martin (French part); Sint Maarten (Dutch part); Trinidad and Tobago.
Habitat: Stenocereus griseus occurs in tropical deciduous forest and xerophyllous scrub with Prosopis. The species is widespread, abundant, and there are no major threats. It also grows in huge numbers in the dryer zones of the Caribbean Rim, where plants may reach 10 m in height and grow in dense thickets. It is so common as nearly to be a weed in the desert scrub of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao of the Netherlands Antilles, where it grows both wild and cultivated. The plants are also commonly planted around homes and gardens and are tolerated on agricultural lands, meaning that plants are left when the vegetation is cleared for agriculture.
Ecology: Its fruits have an ecological role; they are consumed by invertebrates and reptiles, birds, bats, and flightless mammals. The species is interesting from the point of view of seed dispersion syndromes because its pulp may exhibit two colours within the same population: blood red and greenish white, corresponding to ornithochory (seed dispersion by birds) and chiropterochory syndromes (seed dispersion by bats) respectively.
Common Names include:
ENGLISH: Mexican organ pipe, Dagger cactus
SPANISH (Español): Pitaya de mayo, Pitayo de mayo, Pitaya, Dato, Pitayo de mayois
TURKISH (Türkçe): Meksika org borusu, Hançer kaktüsü
Description: Stenocereus griseus is a treelike cactus (3-)6-9(-10) meters high, sometimes branching at the base, sometimes with a definite trunk. This species shows latitudinal variation in growth form, from a multi-stemmed shrub sending up from the base 5 to 20 branches 3 to 6 meters high in dry northern habitats to a ten metre columnar arborescent cactus in Caribbean deciduous forest. The flowers, which appear in spring, are followed by the large delicious fruit much prized by the native.
Stem: Trunk up to 35 cm in diameter, smooth when old; branches erect, 9-12 cm in diameter green and more or less glaucous.
Ribs: 6 to 10, bulging below each areole.