Leptocereus undulosus

Tree habit and terminal segments

An adult Leptocereus undulosus reaches up to 10 m in height. Its woody trunk may be 2–6 m long and about 0.5 m in diameter. Numerous branching segments form the crown. Young terminal segments are glossy green, up to 1 m long and 150 mm in diameter, and usually have 3 ribs, occasionally 4. The rib margins are markedly undulate, with areoles in the depressions. Each areole bears 0–3 spines, usually short, although the description gives a maximum length of 20 mm. [Hoxey et al. 2023b, pp. 22–26]

Flowers, fruits and seeds

The nocturnal flower is 150–200 mm long and has a narrow tube. Its structure fits a suite of traits associated with hawkmoth pollination. Floral resemblance alone does not establish which animals effectively pollinate every population. The fruits are almost spherical, about 80 mm in diameter, with a thick wall of 12–15 mm. They sometimes retain an elongated appendage derived from the floral tube. Seeds measure 2.8–3.2 × 2.0–2.5 × 1.2–1.5 mm and lie in strongly mucilaginous pulp. [Hoxey et al. 2023b, pp. 22–26]

Range and population recruitment

The species occurs in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and on the Haitian islands of Île de la Tortue and Île de la Gonâve. The 2023 revision describes small, scattered populations in seasonally dry forests. Plants attain considerable size in intact forest and may be smaller where the tree canopy has been removed. Young plants were rarely observed despite the presence of fruits. At some sites, fruits in successive stages of decomposition lay beneath adult trees. [Hoxey et al. 2023b, pp. 24–26]

The authors observed fallen stems taking root. They proposed seed dispersal by the iguana Cyclura cornuta as a hypothesis based on fruit structure and overlapping distributions. Their study did not include a confirmed observation of this iguana eating Leptocereus fruit. Any dependence of germination on gut passage also requires a separate experiment. [Hoxey et al. 2023b, pp. 11–13, 24–26]

Name and relationships

The former name Dendrocereus undulosus refers to the same species. Plastid DNA studies in 2020 and 2021 placed the former genus Dendrocereus within Leptocereus. Samples of Haitian and Dominican L. undulosus and Cuban L. nudiflorus formed separate lineages. The atlas retains two species in accordance with current POWO. [Barrios et al. 2020a, pp. 6–12 in the 2020 study, pp. 20–22, 31–32 in the 2021 study] [Majure et al. 2021a, pp. 6–12 in the 2020 study, pp. 20–22, 31–32 in the 2021 study] [2-WWW]

Materials from the author's archive

The species also appears in Konrad Szychowski's private material archive. [Schumann 1890, file p. 16]