Leptocereus

Morphological Summary

Leptocereus is a genus of columnar cacti from the Caribbean, endemic to the Greater Antilles: Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Puerto Rico, with some species also in Jamaica and the Virgin Islands. They are shrubby to arborescent cacti with slender stems, generally few pronounced ribs, rigid spines, and nocturnal tubular flowers in white to pink tones. The genus represents an independent insular adaptive radiation within Caribbean Cactaceae, and many of its species face extinction threats due to habitat destruction, deforestation, and grazing in Caribbean dry ecosystems and thorn scrub. Taxonomically complex: some species have been treated as Consolea, Dendrocereus, or Neoabbottia.