Cactaceae
Carnegiea

Carnegiea gigantea (Engelm.) Britton & Rose

First published in J. New York Bot. Gard. 9: 188 (1908)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is SE. California to S. Arizona and Mexico (Baja California Norte, Sonora, Chihuahua). It is a succulent tree and grows primarily in the desert or dry shrubland biome.

Distribution

Native to:

Arizona, California, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest

Synonyms

Homotypic Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Classification

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Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2003). Flora of North America North of Mexico 4: 1-559. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.
  • Hernández, H.M. & Gómez-Hinostrosa, C. (2015). Mapping the cacti of Mexico part II. Mammillaria. Succulent Plant Research 9: 1-189.
  • Hunt, D. (2016). CITES Cactaceae Checklist, ed. 3: 1-174. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  • Villaseñor, J.L. (2016). Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 87: 559-902.

Kew Species Profiles

  • Anderson, E. F. (2001). The Cactus Family. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
  • Bruhn, J. G. (1971). Carnegiea gigantea: the saguaro and its uses. Economic Botany 25: 320-329.
  • Hodgson, W. C. (2001). Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.
  • Hunt, D. R., Taylor, N. P., Charles, G. & International Cactaceae Systematics Group (2006). T he New Cactus Lexicon: Descriptions and Illustrations of the Cactus Family. David Hunt Books, Milborne Port, Sherborne.
  • Mabberley, D. J. (2008). Mabberley’s Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of Plants, their Classification and Uses. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • Moerman, D. E. (2009). Native American Medicinal Plants: an Ethnobotanical Dictionary. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
  • Nabhan, G. (1982). The Desert Smells Like Rain. North Point Press, San Francisco.

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Hernández, H.M. & Gómez-Hinostrosa, C. (2015). Mapping the cacti of Mexico part II. Mammillaria. Succulent Plant Research 9: 1-189.
  • Villaseñor, J.L. (2016). Checklist of the native vascular plants of Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 87: 559-902.

Kew Plants for Health

  • "SEPASAL database. (RBG Kew, 1999)"
  • "World Checklist of Useful Pl. Spp. (Diazgranados et al., 2020)"
  • GRIN (USDA)
  • MPNS Import
  • US-FDA GSRS (2025)
  • WHODrug Herbal Substances 2025

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. (2014). Plantas alimenticias y medicinales nativas de Colombia. 2567 registros, aportados por: Castellanos, C. (Contacto del recurso), Valderrama, N. (Creador del recurso, Autor), Bernal, Y. (Autor), García, N. (Autor). http://i2d.humboldt.org.co/ceiba/resource.do?r=ls_colombia_magnoliophyta_2014

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • EBC Common Names

    • Common Names from Kew's Economic Botany Collection https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/collections/economic-botany-collection

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Kew's Living Collection Database

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Kew Species Profiles

    • Kew Species Profiles
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0