Range and mature plants
POWO records native occurrence in central, northeastern, northwestern, southeastern and southwestern Mexico. In the population studied on Pajarera Island in Chamela Bay, adults reached six to seven metres and developed branched crowns. The study compared this tropical locality with a Sonoran population. The former P. tehuantepecanus and subspecies tehuantepecanus are synonyms of P. pecten-aboriginum in the current treatment. [Valiente-Banuet et al. 2004] [2-WWW]
Timing of flower opening
On Pajarera, flowers opened at dusk and began to close in the morning. Nectar was secreted at night. In the northern comparison population, flowers remained available longer and also secreted nectar during the day. This schedule allowed daytime animals to use them. Differences in opening time were an important component of geographic variation in pollination, considered together with local bat availability. [Valiente-Banuet et al. 2004]
Self-incompatibility and pollinators
Self-pollination experiments on Pajarera Island produced no fruits. Nighttime access by animals allowed fruit production, whereas flowers exposed only during the day set no fruits in that experiment. Cactus pollen was found on three bat species. In Sonora, daytime visits also contributed substantially. These findings describe a single species with regionally varying pollinator relationships. [Valiente-Banuet et al. 2004]
Materials from the author's archive
The species also appears in Konrad Szychowski's private material archive. [Flores Martínez and Manzanero Medina 2003]
Synonyms and names in the literature
Cereus pecten-aboriginum · Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum subsp. tehuantepecanus · Pachycereus tehuantepecanus [2-WWW]