Pronounciation: Pa-key-SEER-e-us WEB-er-i

Hardiness zones:
Sunset 13, 16-17, 21-24
USDA 9 (might occasionally need protection)-11

Landscape Use: Like other Pachycereus species this one is a strong focal point for xeric landscape themes, container plant, rock garden, large patios.

Form & Character: Columnar, arborescent, branched and somewhat contorted, imposing, dominant.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, succulent perennial, moderately upright and branched (mostly at the base) to 15 to 20 feet (taller in warmer habitats).

Foliage/Texture: Bluish-green stems, 8-inches wide having 8 to 10 ribs; densely tomentose white areoles approximately 1 inch wide bearing nine prominently arrayed white spines to 2-inches long; coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Numerous, terminal single, nocturnal yellowish white flowers, sepals white with single pink center stripe, on side areoles to 4-inches long, buds strongly purple colored. Fruits are edible though arrayed with spines, oblong, 2- to 3-inches long, abundant seeds.

Seasonal Color: Flowers mostly spring (April in Phoenix) and again after the North American monsoon season in September.

Temperature: Although the biggest specimens will take some limited frost when mature, young specimens should be protected from any frost. Stems of even larger specimens normally turn purple in response to chilling injury in the central Arizona landscape area.

Light: Full sun, no shade.

Soil: Well drained, mineral soil is best.

Watering: Water occasionally to maintain turgidity, especially in summer.

Pruning: None, except to control width by occasionally thinning out awkward or crossing branches.

Propagation: Very easy from softwood stem cuttings. After removing a stem section from the mother plant, allow the cut surface to callous over for a couple of weeks before planting directly into soil.

Disease and Pests: Susceptible to root rot in damp poorly drained soils.

Additional comments: With age, this arborescent cactus can become very large occupying significant physical and visual space. Its purple-colored stems during winter are quite the oddity when contrasted against the white aereoles. The abundant seeds in the fruit can be used to make flour (by whom these days in this age of VR I don't know).

A taxonomic note: Pachycereus is a genus of columnar cacti consisting of 10 species from the New World. This genus has undergone several taxonomic reorganizations in the recent past including a recently proposed, but not fully accepted, name change to the genus Lephocereus in the journal Systematic Botany (2009), 34(1): pp. 68-83 in an article by Arias and Terrazas.