British Cactus and Succulent Society

Browningia candelaris (Meyen) Br. & R.

Author(s): Graham Charles
Source: British Cactus & Succulent Journal, Vol. 18, No. 1 (March 2000), pp. 39-42
Published by: British Cactus and Succulent Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42793639
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 Browningia candelaris
(Meyen) Br* & R.
Graham Charles visits this unusual and rarely grown South American species in
habitat and details some interesting and previously unrecorded observations.
Photography by the author.
Briars Bank, Fosters Bridge, Ketton, Stamford, Lines PE9 3UU, UK

imately the lower limit to which the summer rains pen-

This described
describedmost as individual
as Cereus candelarisCereus candelaris
by Franz Meyenof(a cereoid by Franz cacti Meyen was first (a etrate from the east, although sometimes many years
Prussian physician and botanist who visited Peru and can pass without any rain falling on these drought-
Bolivia in 1831) in Allg. Gartenz. 1:211 (1833). The adapted plants. For some reason, perhaps local climat-
specific name aptly describes the unusual shape of the ic conditions, they do not occur in every valley in this
plant with its single upright, spiny trunk crowned with distribution range. Individuals never grow in dense
a head of ascending or drooping branches which are stands, and are normally seen as isolated specimens
almost spineless. In Volume II of The Cactaceae (1920), growing some distance apart. They appear to favour
Britton and Rose erected their new genus Browningia the lower slopes of steep sided valleys or the bottoms
for this one species, naming it in honour of of main valleys where water will occasionally run, but
W. E. Browning, a former director of the Instituto they are also often seen silhouetted against the sky on
Ingles at Santiago, Chile. the top of mountain ridges. I have seen relatively
young examples less than 1 metre high at most of the
When the plants are immature they consist of a very
localities, but even these are probably a few decades
spiny unbranched column with spines up to 15 cm
old. To maintain a population only a few seeds need
long, unless damaged, when branching can occur
to find a suitable place to germinate, but it has to be a
(Fig.l). They retain this form until they reach a height
year during which the climate permits the seedling to
of 2 to 3 metres when the spines on the new growth
get to a size sufficient to survive the next dry period.
diminish or almost disappear and the plant begins to
branch (Fig.4). Only these nearly spineless branches The range of ages of the plants in most localities sug-
are capable of producing the white nocturnal flowers gested to me that there were enough younger ones to
which are followed by fruits with unusual, thin, fleshy keep the overall numbers stable. Other cacti can be
scales. Flowers are never produced from the spiny found growing with Browningia candelaris-. I have seen
trunk; they can appear on young arms, but only a few Armatocereus , Arequipa , Corryocactus , Loxanthocereus,
at a time. They are up to 12cm long and, although Haageocereus and Tephrocactus growing with Browningia ;
nocturnal, are said to have no perfume, so I find it diff- it just depends which valley you are looking in. The
icult to speculate about what the pollinator might be. overall appearance of their surroundings is one of
The total height can eventually reach 6 metres in extreme aridity with little sign of life other than the
favourable locations but usually it is much less. Even cacti, which themselves often look stressed by drought.
on fully mature specimens new spines continue to
Although rainfall probably has a bearing on when
grow on the woody trunk, which consequently
browningias flower, they are usually in bloom in July
becomes ever more spiny, presumably as protection
against prédation.
or August. The fruits are then ripe in October or
November in time for the ripe seeds to benefit from
The habitat range of this species is extensive, from near any rain which falls in December or January. The ripe
Lima in the north (Fig. 2) to at least as far south as the fruits, which fall off whole, are full of pulp (Fig. 5)
valley of Chusmisa in Chile, some 1,300km away. which is said to be attractive to ants, and they may play
They occur between about 2,000 and 2,800m in the a part in the distribution of seeds. In 1999 I observed
dry valleys on the west of the Andes, the precise alt- fruits on plants near to Tacna in southern Chile which
itude depending on local conditions. This is approx- were significantly smaller (6cm long; Fig. 5) than one I

BCS) Vol. 18 (I) Kļ ■

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 BCSJ Vol. 18 (I) U|

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Figure 4 The abrupt end to the spiny, Figure 5 The small fruit of plants near Figure 6 The large fruit of plants in the
lower part of the trunk on a plant near Tacna, at 2,670m in southern Peru. Tinajas Canyon near Lima, Peru.
the road from Arica to Putre, at 2,200m GC340.02 GC 1 57.02
in northern Chile. GC280.0 1

had observed in Tinajas Canyon (10cm long) near to According to Rauh, the propagation of this plant must
Lima in 1994 (Fig. 6), although both contained ripe be done by seeds since the flowering arms cannot be
seeds. Interestingly, Rauh referred to certain differ- rooted nor successfully grafted. This is an interesting
ences in the plants from the northern end of the dist- observation which suggests that there is something
ribution, including the fact that they occurred at lower physiologically different about these branches which
altitude. Ritter described these northern populations stops them rooting, a bit like trying to root just the
as a separate species, Browningia icaensis , stating that the cephalium of a Melocactus perhaps. Before reaching
two grew in the same valley where their distributions this conclusion, I think it would be necessary to exper-
overlapped and there they were separated by altitude imentally compare the rooting of Browningia branches
with a definite gap between them. In his description, with the mature limbs of other large cerei collected in
Ritter gives the fruit size of B. icaensis as 10cm, rather habitat, since I would guess that none of these large
larger than the 7cm quoted for the southern forms. diameter stems would be easy.

Browningia candelaris is rarely cultivated in Europe, part- In recent years, the desire to consolidate species into
ly due to seed being offered only occasionally and also fewer genera has resulted in further plants being added
because the seedlings are slow growing and not partic- to the genus Browningia. Species which once belonged
ularly attractive. An article in Kakteen und andere to Gymnocereus , Gymnanthocereus , Castellanosia , and
Sukkulenten (1967), the journal of the German Society, Azureocereus are now included, making a total of about
by Prof. W. Rauh, described how a 3 metre high ten in all. Although they have a number of botanical
mature specimen was collected near to Arequipa and features in common, none has the extraordinary form
of B. candelaris.
transported to the Heidelberg Botanical Garden where
it flowered in 1965, probably the first (and last?) flow- REFERENCES:
ering of this species in cultivation in Europe. When I BRITTON, N.L. & ROSE, J.N. (1920) The Cactaceae Vol. II: 63
visited Tinajas Canyon near Lima in 1994, my friend Carnegie Institute, Washington, USA.

Chris Pugh dislodged a fruit with an accurate throw of BUXBAUM, E (1965) Gattung Browningia in Krainz, H. u. F. Buxbaum
Die Kakteen, Stuttgart, Germany.
a stone. The fruit weighed over 200g (Fig. 6) and cont- RAUH, W. (1958) Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Peruvianischen Kakteenvegetation
ained a large number of large black seeds which result- Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany.
ed in many of the typical brown spined seedlings. RAUH, W. (1967) Eine blühende Browningia candelaris (Meyen) Br. & R.
in der Kultur. Kakt. und. and. Sukk. 18(3): 43.
After six years the biggest plants are about 12cm tall.
RITTER, F. (1981) Kakteen in Sudamerika Band 4: 1319. Self-published
My oldest plant is over 25 years old and still only SOHRENS, J. (1923-24) Cereus candelaris Meyen. Zeitschrift fur
about 25 cm tall so I am not optimistic about being the Sukkulentenkunde 1: 197. ^
first to flower a seedling in cultivation in Britain!

WE3Ě BCSj Vol. 18(1)

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