Pterocereus is a monotypic genus of cactus containing the sole species Pterocereus gaumeri.[1]
Pterocereus gaumeri grows tree-shaped with long, slender shoots, has little or no branches and reaches heights of up to 8 meters. It forms a trunk up to 1.5 meters high. The three to four very sharp-edged ribs look wing-like. The areoles on it are far apart from each other. The approximately ten thorns are gray or reddish black and up to long.
The cylindrical to funnel-shaped, greenish white flowers exude a foul-smelling scent. They open at night and are long. Its pericarpel and floral tube are covered with fleshy, leaf-like scales that have recurved tips, as well as some wool and a few bristles. The spherical fruits are light red.[2]
Pterocereus gaumeri is distributed in the Mexican states of Yucatán, Chiapas and Veracruz.
The first description was made in 1920 by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose.[3] The specific epithet gaumeri honors the American botanist and naturalist George Franklin Gaumer (1850–1929), who discovered the species. Nomenclature synonyms are Anisocereus gaumeri (Britton & Rose) Backeb. (1942) and Pachycereus gaumeri Britton & Rose (1920). Taxonomic synonyms are Cereus yucatanensis Standl. (1930), Pterocereus foetidus T. MacDoug. & Miranda (1954), Anisocereus foetidus (T.MacDoug. & Miranda) W.T.Marshall (1957), Pachycereus foetidus (T.MacDoug. & Miranda) P.V.Heath (1992).[4]