Hildewintera

Morphological Summary

Hildewintera is a genus of pendant columnar cacti from the eastern Andes of Bolivia and northwestern Argentina, named after Hildegard Winter. Its species have pendulous stems reaching 1–2.5 m in length, densely covered in soft, silky spines in golden, white, or chestnut tones. Flowers are tubular and appear laterally along the stem in colors ranging from orange to intense red. Some authors include Hildewintera within Cleistocactus, but it is frequently kept as an independent genus due to its unique growth habits. H. colademononis, the famous "monkey tail cactus," has become one of the world's most popular cacti in the last 25 years.