Latin pilosus—hairy.
Body columnar, shrubby to tree-like mostly branching from the base or trunk. Ribs mostly 4-12, or more. Areoles, at least those of flowers, always woolly. Flowers nocturnal, tubular to bell-shaped. Pericarpel and flower tube fleshy, naked or with minute scales. Fruit more or less spherical or ovoid, like a fig but with red flesh and persistent flower parts.
A genus formerly known under the name Pilocereus or placed within the genus Cephalocereus. The 2 more commonly grown species are tree-like, eventually growing to over 5 m tall but are rare in cultivation in Australia.
Body often hairy with flowers buried in the long woolly hair.
About 60 species from Mexico, W Indies and E South 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.
