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M S Smith

Trichocereus santaensis

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Here's a couple different T. santaensis I have. The first is from Mesa Garden and the second from the Huntington Botanical. I don't know more about the provenance of either, but the Huntington one is spectacular...forget it, they both are.

[Edit] Opps, I suppose this shouldn't be in the ID section.

~Michael~

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Edited by M S Smith
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Amazing cacti Mr.Smith, they look great!

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And here I was half expecting to see a cactus wearing a Santa Claus costume :P Christmas is getting close after all!

Beautiful looking species (spectacular is a very accurate way of putting it!). Quite similar in appearance to T. pachanoi, T. peruvianus and T. bridgesii, all rolled into one.

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on closer inspection i was WAY off on my id.

Edited by _e_

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Hmmm is this cacti relative to pachanoi/bridgesi ?? Or is it a definate separate species?

I would definately say it looks interesting. Fine samples too :)

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Thought I would consolidate some of the discussion. Here's what I posted in another thread..but deleted to avoid any rules violation.

T. santaensis is one of those weird plant that seem to be an intermediary of the T. pachanoi of Ecuador and northern Peru and the feral T. peruvianus from Haurochiri region of central Peru. Either that or maybe it's a sort of holdover in the development of T. pachanoi as a spineless cultivar. I tends towards thinking T. pachanoi is a cultivar developed directly out of the T. peruvianus of central Peru, but I can't dismiss the idea that some of these plants on the way to T. pachanoi remained intact in certain regions. I'd imagine that T. pallarensis, from the same general region as T. santaensis is the same species, or just a slightly different variation.

I recently found this next shot of T. santaensis from the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California.

http://www.flickr.co...N03/5642043344/

Here's a similar Trichocereus from the RBG, but from a different location in the garden, and there was no mention of the species.

http://www.flickr.co...att/5925630272/

But here's the shot I really love, a Trichocereus in Huaraz, Peru, which probably falls into the same general group as T. santaensis and T. pallarensis.

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~Michael~

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Edited by M S Smith
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Kelley McDonald was nice enough to forward me these larger photos of Trichocereus santaensis at the Ruth Bancroft Garden.

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~Michael~

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They are awesome looking cacti, I'm going to have to order some seeds from SS :)

Thanks Michael

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I was curious what identified the Ruth Bancroft plant as a santaensis rather than a peruvianus (which is what RBG's staff believes it to be)?

Thanks for any clarity.

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I thought it might be worth attaching its label. The garden tends to preserve the names under which they were originally purchased by Ruth Bancroft. They commented that several Trichocereus in their collection were acquired as Cereus species.

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If there is an H number associated with the Huntington plant it should be simple to know if it was Ostolaza or Kiesling who provided it to them.

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Edited by trucha

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Hey kt, the only thing that identifies it as T. santaensis is the woman who sent me the pictures. There are two different plants in the RGB photos, one showing a plant in the open, and the second plant in the rest which is up against the fence. I'm not sure if they are the same plant or not, but I was told by Kelley McDonald that they were. I suspected they might be different, with the second being T. peruvianus. She passed on a contact at the garden if I wanted to inquire further. Would you like the contact info?

~Michael~

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It is definitely a Trichocereus. :P

Michael, I am curious if you write your name every time, including the tilde or is their something that does it automatically?

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Thanks MIchael. I was just curious as I've been wondering about this plant's origin for some time. RBG doesn't have anything in their records on where it came from.

I agree or at least I am pretty sure there are two plants in what you posted above. The one in the lefthand image below that is not by the fence keeps a smaller diameter and is differently spined. I can try to get by there in a few days when I'm in the area and get some closeups of that one.

Ruth Bancroft Gargen Echinopsis santaensis Kelley Macdonald 1 alt.jpg Ruth Bancroft Gargen Echinopsis santaensis Kelley Macdonald 2 alt.jpg Ruth Bancroft Gargen Echinopsis santaensis Kelley Macdonald 3 alt.jpg

Rooted cuttings appear from time to time in their plant sales. The last time I was there some really long sections were in their propagation area but I don't know if they were for the plant sale or planting out in the garden.

Chill - for sure its a trichocereus. For a variety of reasons, a few of them have been sold under the name Cereus including some really beautiful ones like this one.

Edited by trucha

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Well I for one look forward to your inquiries kt.

And chilli, I actually write my name...there's a poetic reason having to do with Walt Whitman.

~Michael~

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This one might require pattern matching and some blind luck. According to the garden curator they did not retain names of their sources for this or a number of other cacti. There is a plant at Kimura's old site down in Salinas that looks really similar but it only reaches about half the diameter.

RBG gave me a possible lead to check but its going to require some leg work in the Bay Area so won't be able to happen for some weeks to come.

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These are pictures from the RBG plant sale last weekend. If I had re-read this thread before I went I would have gotten better pictures. Just wandering around the garden without an intent to locate and compare these plants, I didn't think the two plants shown above were the same.

Here is the one by the fence which IIRC had the Cereus sp. tag. (Definitely didn't have a specific trichocereus variety named...) You can get close enough to touch this one.

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Here are three pictures of the one on it's own. It has a tag labeled Echinopsis santaensis. Set farther into a bed you can't get too close.

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I found this growing locally in a home garden in northern California, and now think it looks an awful lot like the RBG santaensis that is growing on it's own, not by the fence. The owner got a cutting from a friend and doesn't know what kind of cactus it is. It was the only trichocereus in his garden.

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I had thought it looked like a bridgesii, with a similar "spray" of spines. Granted, this plant has been in the ground for about 10 years, and my bridgesii for just a few, but this plant grows much, much thicker. I was careful in this picture to keep everything lined up to avoid forced perspective.

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Wow Solaritea, I misses these back when you posted them...thanks, beautiful.

Here's a shot of each of my own T. santaensis, the first two are from Mesa Garden seedlings, and the third if from the Huntington.

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~Michael~

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I have gotten some reaction to this being a peruvianus, which I have nothing against, but the simalarities are there so the person that im getting a cut indeed pointed this out about it being santanensis.... so I had to ask, before he asked me about his doubt about it being a peruvianis and being a santanensis I send his a copy of trouts notes, so he may examine,after he came about this...

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