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Peniocereus greggii var transmontanus
Peniocereus greggii is a slender-stemmed cactus with a large underground tuber that can reach the size of a basketball, and weigh as much as 15 pounds. Occasional specimens are known to weigh as much as 87 pounds. It is reported that native Americans utilized the tuber for food. The grey stems are four to six ribbed, to 12 mm in diameter, and resemble the stems of the shrubs that often support them. The stems are armed with short dark spines along the ribs. Flowers are large and beautiful, salverform, nocturnal, scented, white, to 7.5 cm in diameter. They last only one night. Fruits are red, ovoid, sparsely spiny, fleshy and many-seeded. The taxon is listed as Category 3C, and is more common that previously thought. The inconspicuous nature of the growth habit and the resemblance to creosote bush stems could account for the misconception that plants are extremely rare. The known range has been expanded to include large areas in central Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, western Texas, and south into Sonora, Mexico at elevations below 4000 ft.
Desert Botanical Garden has five plants salvaged from an area slated to be destroyed for construction of the Central Arizona Project Canal, 3 cuttings from those plants, and approximately 10,000 seeds produced in cultivation.
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