Commemorating William Harris, Superintendent of Public Gardens and Plantations, Jamaica, in the early 20th century.
Body tree- or shrub-like to several metres tall, occasionally scrambling. Stems narrow with 4-12 angles or ribs, often spiny and without aerial roots or segments. Flowers nocturnal, funnel-shaped, to 12 cm wide with a long tube, white; summer. Pericarpel and flower tube with felted scales that are sometimes hairy in the axils. Fruit fleshy, red, yellow or orange, mostly with areoles, scales and spines, splitting or not.
Spectacular vine-like plants with nocturnal scented flowers. Grown mostly as H. jusbertii (K. Schum.) Borg which has 4-6 ribs and short more or less equal spines. Species in this genus are often used as a grafting stock.
Flower tube of even width; scales hairy in their axils.
About 20 species in two geographic groups, one in Florida and the W Indies, the other from S America.
Source: (1997). Cactaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
