Trichocereus thelegonus / Echinopsis thelegona Friedrich & Rowley

Trichocereus thelegonus / Echinopsis thelegona Friedrich & Rowley

Pic: Noah Reams

Origin: Argentina, Tucumán, Salta, 5500-1100 meters altitude

Synonyms: Trichocereus thelegona, Trichocereus thelegonus, Echinopsis thelegonus, Echinopsis thelegona, Cereus thelegona, Cereus thelegonus

Trichocereus thelegonus is a branchy & creeping cactus that only produces a handful of shoots. It can reach a maximal height of approximately 2.2 meters and can get up to 10 centimeters in diameter. But that´s only the case on very old plants and most of them get 6 – 8 cm in diameter. The plant has 12-13 ribs and is characterized by its very dominant areoles that sit in top of some extremely hexagonal warts. It´s look is very typical and once you got used to the plant, it´s very hard to overlook or misidentify it.

Trichocerus thelegonus has rounded areoles and yellow to dark/brown spines. There also are regional types that rather have a reddish spine color instead of the brown one. Old growth tends to change its color to a more blackish tone, similar to how it can be observed on Trichocereus cuzcoensis. That said, both are really not very similar and this interesting plant from Argentina rather resembles a hanging basket cactus, than a classic columnar. Tr. thelegonus / Echinopsis thelegona usually has one and, in some very rare cases, two middle spines and between 5-8 radial spines that can reach up to 2,5 centimeters in length.

FLOWER: Trichocereus thelegonus is a night flowering species, with flowers than can stay open until the early morning. The flower is white and gets up to 22 centimeters long and I measured a staggering 17 centimeters in diameter.

Apart from the size, the flower is very beautiful and has a wonderful scent!

Fruits: The fruits of Trichocereus thelegonus are round and have reddish brown hairs. The fruits are reddish and can reach 6 centimeters in diameter. It does not produce as many seeds as other plants from the same genus. Trichocereus thelegonus / Echinopsis thelegona is self-sterile and it needs pollen from other plants to produce seed.

Crested or Monstrose type: There also is a crested clone of this plant that is extremely cool and resembles a monstrose Cereus. I´ve been lookingf or this crest for years, but wasn´t able to find one yet. Luckily, there are some pics from a Botanical garden:

Buy seeds or cuttings of Trichocereus thelegonus: This type is kinda rare, but I sometimes get viable seeds of Trichocereus thelegonus. The problem isn´t that there aren´t any seeds available; but most of the ones that were, did not germinate. I am working on putting the type in my shop and if you want to be up to date about my fresh seeds, please subscribe to my newsletter at: trichocereus.net/newsletter.

 

Echinopsis Thelegona Cristata by Daderot

by Emoke denes Echinopsis_thelegona

bernard loison Echinopsis_thelegona

by Dick Cullbert

Pics: Noah Reams

Pics: Noah Reams

Trichocereus thelegonus / Echinopsis thelegona Friedrich & Rowley

Ogun: CLONE ONE (Trichocereus pachanoi)

Ogun: CLONE ONE (Trichocereus pachanoi)

This beautiful Pachanoi is/was distributed by the SAB member Ogun. It has a beautiful bright green epidermis and short stump spines. The plant comes from Cajabamba in Peru and one of its charasteristics is the bright green color. Most of the colums we saw had 6 – 7 ribs, but it´s very possible that new pups differ from that. CLONE ONE looks very healthy and vigorous. If you look very closely, you can see some very fine grains on the epidermis and the shield-shaped areoles are covered with a brown fluff. The clone also has some very strong V-notches, making it a very typical Tr. pachanoi. In a way, it also resembles the Ecuadorian Pachanois.

Flower: Unfortunately, we weren´t able to observe the flower yet but I´ll keep you updated in case I´ll come across a flowering plant for the database.

Where to buy seeds or cuttings: I´ll probably try to get cuttings as soon as they are available. The clone is fairly new in cultivation, which is why it will take 3-5 years until some of them are flowering. I´ll keep you guys updated in case I get anything.

Ogun: CLONE ONE (Trichocereus pachanoi)

ICARO DNA (Trichocereus peruvianus)

ICARO DNA (Trichocereus peruvianus)

The ICARO DNA is not actually a clone but a seller who is very well know for it´s high quality Trichocereus seeds. The plants grow into amazingly dark to blue-green colored columns with strong spines. Sometimes, those spines are also dark brown colored and are among the most beautiful Trichocereus types I know. Personally, it´s definitely one of my all-time favorite cacti, simply based on the impressing look.

ICARO DNA sold a lot of seeds of this type in the past, which is why there is a large genetic variety available on the market. There also are certain clones that most likely were sourced from ICARO, such as the SHARXX BLUE or MAYBE the Rosei 2.

Apart from seedgrown material, there also is a relatively common clone that´s been traded around by people of the Trichocereus community, but the larger number of seedgrown plants make a differentiation hard.

I do have quite a few pics of this interesting type and I´ll post further updates about it as soon as I get more pics. Those been around for at least ten years now.

These picture were donated by Prier. Thank you very much!

Plants that look like this were oftenly labeled as Trichocereus macrogonus and chances are that you bought some of these labeled as such. Their cold hardiness and soil requirements are pretty much identical to the ones from other Tr. peruvianus.

Pic: Courtesy of Trichocereus.com.au

The ones in these pics were grown in Australia, where this type is a bit more common than in Europe. If you are looking for one, just send me a message at EG[ät]trichocereus.net or you could try making a post in our Trichocereus Facebook group where it shows up every now and then as well.

ICARO DNA (Trichocereus peruvianus)

Jeans (Trichocereus bridgesii)

Jeans (Trichocereus bridgesii)

This interesting plant is a Trichocereus bridgesii clone that was originally sourced by the Australian SAB member Sir Jeans, who gave this clone to a handful of people. By sharing this clone over the course of various years, it was distributed into the collections of many people.

This picture was posted by Sir Jeans in 2012. It shows his original mother plant, which looks like a very spiny plant that almost looks like a Tr. cuzcoensis. Copyright: Sir Jeans

Definitely an interesting plant with long spines and a very glaucous Epidermis.  It´s not really completely untypical for a Tr. bridgesii, but it´s definitely one of the most impressive ones out there!

Pictures provided by ZED240!

Jeans (Trichocereus bridgesii)

Chemical Shaman´s D*ck (Trichocereus bridgesii)

Chemical Shaman´s D*ck (Trichocereus bridgesii) (UPDATE DEC 2015)

NO, that is not supposed to read „DUCK“. 😉

Chemical Shamans D*ck aka CSD is a new Clone that was introduced by SAB Member Ferret, who brought it into circulation in honor of the Member Chemical Shaman, who unfortunately passed away.

According to Ferret, the Clone was grown from a batch of Trichocereus bridgesii Seed, which were provided by the NOOK Member BEEKER.

The Clones Characteristics are a very stunted, almost monstrous Look with a very unique Spination, which is very unlike other Trichocereus bridgesii. Besides, if seen from above, the Plant has a Look that reminds of a Lophophora williamsii, which is WAY COOl!

At this point, we couldn´t observe a flower yet, but will certainly add Flower Pics as soon as we get some.

The copyright on all those pics belongs to SAM, who donated those pics for the database!

UPDATE December 2015:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chemical Shaman´s D*ck (Trichocereus bridgesii)