Common Name: CACTUS FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, generally fleshy. Stem: cylindric to spheric, or flat; surface smooth, tubercled, or ribbed (grooved); nodal areoles bearing flowers. Leaf: generally 0 or early-deciduous, flat to +- cylindric. Spines: areoles generally with central, radial spines, occasionally with glochids. Flower: generally 1 per areole, bisexual [unisexual], sessile, radial [bilateral]; perianth parts generally many [5], scale-like to petal-like; stamens many; ovary inferior [superior], style 1, stigma lobes generally several [many]. Fruit: dry to fleshy or juicy, indehiscent to variously dehiscent, spiny, scaly, or naked; tubercled or smooth. Seed: generally many, occasionally 0--few. Genera In Family: +- 125 genera, +- 1800 species: America (especially deserts), Africa; many cultivated, some edible. Note: Spines smaller, fewer (0) in shade forms; yellow spines blacken in age. Introduced species increasingly escape cultivation. Hybridization common in some genera. eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce D. Parfitt, Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Etymology: (Andrew Carnegie, American industrialist, philanthropist, 1835--1919) eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt
Carnegiea gigantea (Engelm.) Britton & Rose
NATIVE Habit: Tree, branches erect or ascending from sides of trunk, 1--10, generally 0 in basal 1.5--2 m. Stem: massive, 3--16 m, 30--75 cm diam, columnar, firm, not regularly segmented; ribs 12--30, prominent; tubercles +- 0. Spines: (8)15--28(50) per areole, 1--1.5 mm diam, stout, needle-like to awl-shaped, straight to +- curved; central spines (0)4--7 per areole. Flower: generally +- terminal, occasionally lateral, at distal edge of spine cluster, 8.5--12.5 cm, 5--6 cm diam; outer perianth parts green, margins lighter; inner perianth parts petal-like, white; ovary green, tubercled, scaly, scales triangular, spines 0 (or spines bristle-like), glabrous, style 10--15 mm. Fruit: 45--75 mm, 25--45 mm diam, obovoid to ellipsoid, dehiscent by 2+ vertical splits, red, occasionally thin-white-spined. Seed: 1.5--2 mm, obovoid, shiny, black. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Rocky hills, plains; Elevation: < 1500 m. Bioregional Distribution: e DSon; Distribution Outside California: southern Arizona, northwestern Mexico. Flowering Time: May--Jun Synonyms: Cereus giganteus Engelm. Jepson eFlora Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Carnegiea Next taxon: Cylindropuntia
Botanical illustration including Carnegiea gigantea
Citation for this treatment: Bruce D. Parfitt 2012, Carnegiea gigantea, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=17969, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
