Trichocereus Purpureopilosa / Purpureopilosus

Trichocereus Purpureopilosa / Trichocereus Purpureopilosus

Current name: Echinopsis lamprochlora

The plant on this pictures is what was known as Trichocereus Purpureopilosus. It is a very attractive plant and was used extensively in hybrid culture. The flower is purple and looks amazing. The modern taxonomy placed this plant in the messed up species Trichocereus Lamprochlorus and though I dont really agree with it being synonymous with Lamprochlorus, I will definitely add this piece of information on this page.

Origin: Argentina, Sierra de cordoba

This type of trichocereus is pupping from the base and can grow upwards or laying sideways/creeping. It can reach a size of up to 60 centimters and has a maximum diameter of 7 centimeters. The color of the epidermis is a very dark, wet green and has a shiny texture. It can reach up to 12 ribs and has 18-22 very thin radial spines that are up to 8 mm long. Besides, it has up to 5 middle spines that are yellow in color and have a slightly swollen base.

Flower: The flower is white with a pink undertone. More than 20 centimeters large with an ovary that is up to 2,5 centimeters long. The sepals are up to 5 centimeters long and have a dark red color. The petals are double-rowed, up to 5 centimeters long and between 1-2 centimeters wide. The stamens are yellow-green. Please note that there are many hybrids around that have all kinds of flower colors.

So far, i´ve seen this type used for Hildewintera hybrids (now Cleistocactus), Trichocereus Candicans hybrids and some more Echinopsis hybrids.

Synonyms: Trichocereus Spachianus cv. Hungaricus, Trichocereus Spachianus, Trichocereus Imperalis (which is a hybrid between Trichocereus and Echinopsis, created by a well known breeder called Fonteyne)

Please note that those plants are extremely common on the commercial market, especially among hybrid breeders. And every hybrid can be different.

As a comparison, here is a pic of Trichocereus Brevispinulosus on Trouts website. They are definitely close, but they are probably closer to Thelegonus than to Purpureopilosus. I consider them to be a hybrid Thelegonus x Purpureopilosus or something like that but that´s just speculation. You can see the typical Thelegonus-like edging, but without it´s typical spines. I will also include this plant on the page about Trichocereus Thelegonus because it seems to be very closely related to it. The flower is also very typical to Thelegonus and it´s probably a thelegonus hybrid. However, there are many Purpureopilosus hybrids that have a much more distinct thelegonus-like edging than the one in the first two Purpureopilosus pics on this page and I will add some more to show how variable that whole group is. That variability is probably caused by hybrid culture though:

Trichocereus Purpureopilosa / Purpureopilosus