Plants→Acanthocereus→Triangle Cactus (Acanthocereus tetragonus)

Shrubby, arching or climbing cactus with 3-5 ribs and stout spines. Flowers are large, white and nocturnal. Fruit is red or green, spiny or not.

Widespread and common in coastal areas and on hills through the tropics of North and South America, including southern Florida and parts of the Caribbean, from 26°N to 2°N. Highly variable.

The name of this genus means "spiny cereus". It was condensed to 1 species (tetragonus) in the early 2000s but appears to have recently expanded to include a number of resurrected former Acanthocereus species (each restricted to a certain geographical area) and a subgenus of Peniocereus (about a dozen plants) which was shown by DNA studies to fall alongside Acanthocereus and separate from the other subgenera of Peniocereus.

This species absorbed Cereus validus in the recent past, but that plant was subsequently removed by Lodé, so C. validus stands as its own distinct species again. Our database does not reflect this change because it follows the Catalogue of Life.

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