ZnSe nanowire heterostructures were grown by molecular beam epitaxy in the vapour-liquid-solid growth mode assisted by gold catalysts. Size, shape and crystal structure are found to strongly depend on the growth conditions. Both, zinc-blende and wurtzite crystal structures are observed using transmission electron microscopy. At low growth temperature, cone-shaped nano-needles are formed. For higher growth temperature, the nanowires are uniform and have a high aspect ratio with sizes of 1-2 mu m in length and 20-50 nm in width as observed by scanning electron microscopy. Growing a nanowire on top of a nano-needle allows us to obtain very narrow nanorods with a diameter less than 10 nm and a low density of stacking fault defects. These results allow us the insertion of CdSe quantum dots in a ZnSe nanowire. An efficient photon anti-bunching was observed up to 220 K, demonstrating a high-temperature single-photon source. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.