Trichocereus Strigosus

Trichocereus Strigosus

Synonyms: Cereus Strigonus, Echinopsis Strigonus, Cereus Myriophyllus, Trichocereus Strigonus,

This plant grows in direct neighborhood with Trichocereus Candicans and was cataloged by Gilles in 1833. But back then, the plant was not described until 1834 when Salm-Dyck took the effort to write a complete description. Trichocereus Strigosus and Trichocereus Candicans both grow around Mendoza. The original name was Cereus Myriophyllus (Gilles) but it was changed to Trichocereus Strigosus because it was based on a nomen nudum and that´s why Salm-Dyck´s description has priority over the older name Cereus Myriophyllus.

Flower: Up to 20 centimeters large, white. Trichocereus Strigosus is a night flowering species. It also is self-sterile, what means that you need pollen from another donor to produce seeds. Please not that there is a white form of Trichocereus Strigosus.The white flowering variety of this plant grows at around 1600 meters altitude. The plant is pupping from the base and only reaches around 60-65 centimeters in height.

Ribs: Trichocereus Strigonus has 15-20 ribs and the shoots have a maximum diameter of 5-8 centimeters.

The Areoles are white/beige felted and reach a maximum diameter of 5mm. Every areole are approximately 3-6 mm apart from each other.

Spines: Yellow, very thin and fine spines, up to 3 centimeters long, 10-15 radial spines and 2-5 middle spines that can get up to 5,5 centimeters long. The plant has very long and fierce spines.

In addition, there are some other forms/varieties. One of them was originally known as Trichocereus Strigonus var. Flaviflorus and only occurs in Famatina, Province La Rioja in Argentina. This type has a yellow flower and is day flowering. The flowers are between 12-14 centimeters large. The yellow flowering variety grows a couple hundred meters below the white flowering one. In addition, the yellow flower is shorter.

Cultivation: The species is very rare in cultivation, though it sometimes shows up in cactus collections all around the world. The plant should be kept relatively dry, though it can be watered in the summer when it´s pretty hot. As it grows in the neighborhood of Trichocereus Candicans, it requires similar conditions. Trichocereus Strigonus likes getting a fair amount of sun light but shouldn´t be baked in full sun all day long. They usually grow in semi-shade and can form amazing clusters.

Seed & live cutting sources: Trichocereus Strigonus is very far, but seed sellers have it in stock every now and then. I bought seed from Köhres a couple of years before and I am pretty sure that Kakteen Haage or Uhlig will have some of them every now and then too. The plants are really rare on ebay but it sometimes happens that they show up as Trichocereus sp. Without the flower, it´s definitely a hard to ID species.

Winter protection and frost tolerance: Trichocereus Strigonus is able to take a light amount of frost but everything lower than -5° celsius is dangerous and can lead to permanent damage or death. Plants need to be kept completely dry if the temperatures drop below 10° celsius/50° Fahrenheit and it´s best to keep them in a bright, well ventilated area. The minimum average temperature is 10° celsius.

Seed germination: The seed germinates very easy, if it´s actually fresh. Especially with those rarer Trichos, there are problems regarding the viability of the seeds. I think Succeed has them in stock too and if possible, ask the seller in advance if he knows how old the seed is. That´s a good rule of thumb anyway and these days, I do it for all my seed orders.

“Echinopsis strigosa” by Ryan Somma

Vela de la Virgen, Trichocereus strigosa, La Rioja desert – Picture “Echinopsis strigosa by Dick Culbert –

“Echinopsis strigosa” by Ryan Somma – Echinopsis strigosa

 

 

Trichocereus Strigosus

Trichocereus Puquiensis / Echinopsis puquiensis

Trichocereus Puquiensis / Echinopsis puquiensis

There is very little Information available about Trichocereus puquiensis. The Name comes from Rauh & Backeberg and was described as Trichocereus puquiensis Rauh et Backeberg nov. spec.

This is an older version of an article from our Trichocereus database. Check out the full version with photos: https://trichocereus.net/trichocereus-puquiensis-echinopsis-puquiensis-puquio

The plant is certainly not an accepted species anymore, but I will give a clear overview what this type looks like.

Trichocereus puquiensis gets up to 4 meters tall, but most plants are around 2 meters. It pups from the base and grows as columnar shoots, growing upwards. The plant is extremely close to Trichocereus cuzcoensis and I regard it as a variety of Trichocereus cuzcoensis. The color of the epidermis is blue/green. It has 8-10 ribs and reaches a maximum diameter of 10-20 centimeters. The ribs are between 1-2 centimeters high, areoles are 1-2 centimeter in diameter and felted, similar to the areoles on Trichocereus cuzcoensis. Trichocereus puquiensis has 10-12 radial spines that are up to 2,5 centimeters long. New spine growth of the radial spines is brown. It also has 1-2 long middle spines, of which one or two are pointing upwards. Those middle spines are 8-12 centimeters long. New spine growth is brown and old spine growth is gray, exactly like it is on Cuzcoensis.

Flowers: The flowers are 15-22 centimeters large and white. A typical San Pedro flower. The tube is up to 2,5 centimeters thick and hairy.

Fruit: Unkown. Probably similar to Cuzcoensis fruits.



Habitat: Puquio, Department Ayacucho and it only occurs there. It grows in neighborhood of Erdisia Quadringularis. Rauh assigned the collection number K119.

This is Rauh´s original, latin description, which slightly differs from mine.

Planta 3-4 m alta, a basi ramosa; caules columniformes glauci, 8-10 costati usque 15 cm crassi: costae angustae, ca- 1,5 cm altae; areolae 1cm in dia. lutei-brunnescenti-tomentosae, aculeis marginalibus ca. 10 usque 2cm longis, in calulibus hornis brunneis;aculei centrales plerumque 2, quorum superior oblique erectus vel transverse patents, usque 10 cm longus, basalis oblique deflexus 5-8 cm longus, in caule hornio badius, senectute canus; flores usque 15 cm longi, tubus floralis etiam in statu ante efflorationem rectus, usque 2cm crassus, squamis bractaeneis dense obtectus, quarum pars libera late trigona, in apicem obscurum excurrens, in axillis earum pili lanei brunneo-atri; phylla perigonii exteriora subtus basi rubiginosa, supra virescentia, interiora alba, filamenta, stylus et stigmata virescentia, radii stigmatis 19, ca. 5mm longi, cavum ovarii ferequadrangulare, 0,7cm in dia., nectarium 1,5 cm. longum, angustissimum, stylo crasso fere omnino expletum; fructus ignoti.

Friedrich Ritter sold Seed labeled as FR 155b. Ritter said that the Species would rather resemble Trichocereus Pachanoi than Trichocereus Cuzcoensis. Only limited to the pacific Part of the Andes while Cuzcoensis would grow on the Atlantian Part of the Andes. However, the plant is so similar to Trichocereus Cuzcoensis that I disagree with him on this one. He knew plants better than everyone else, but during that time, many regional varieties were described as species, which is no longer accepted in taxonomy because the taxonomists understood that many of those plants are simply extremely variable and form regional varieties and forms all the time.

Karel Knize sold Seed & Plants under that Name too. The plant is extremely similar to Trichocereus Cuzcoensis but has a couple more ribs than a standard Cuzcoensis. In case of multi-ribbed plants, Trichocereus Puquiensis should be a considered option. It also does not have rounded spine basis, which is typical for Trichocereus Cuzcoensis.

The plant is becoming more and more common because Karel Knize sold large amounts of seed and plants in the past years.

Cultivation: There is very few information about Trichocereus puquiensis available. It should be grown like a standard Cuzco because it´s general growth type is similar to that. It can tolerate frost but temperatures should´nt be lower than -5° to -10° celsius. Plants should be kept totally dry over winter.

Seed & live cuttings sources: There are no known sources for this plant than Karel Knize. And almost all seed I ever got from him was low quality. Besides, I paid him 500 bucks and didnt get anything in return. So yeah, might be a good idea to buy from someone else.

I think that SAB has the plant but right now, it is not in stock. But yeah, they must have had some botanical super powers because they were able to germinate some of Knize´s seed and next time they have it in stock, I´d suggest you to get it because the plant is not very common.


In our Trichocereus group, we sometimes post photos of Tr.puquiensis: https://facebook.com/groups/trichocereus




Trichocereus Puquiensis