help with id for a cactus newbie

[budgerum]

Hey guys I was recently got some cuttings off a 30+yrs cactus that was about 4m high. Hoping you can ID it for me. The older branches have 8 ribs.Sorry about the poor quality pics.

[Ethos]

tripis was spot on with the peru call,

and budgerum that is a mighty fine tree, just think one day yours may flourish to its potential

[ballzac]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who got it wrong It goes to show how deceptive it can be when you only see bits and pieces. Looking at the mother plant I don't think there's anything ambiguous about it at all.

[budgerum]

Hi All, just as an update I've posted a couple of pics of one of the cuttings from the motherplant.

[M S Smith]

I wouldn't say at all that budgerum's plant was the classic sort of T. peruvianus growing feral around the Huarochiri/Matucana region of Peru, but it certainly has some affinity. My thought's been that it was from just such populations that T. pachanoi as a cultivar arose and so I don't have a problem with there being nearly every level of intergrade between what I would regard as the classic form of T. peruvianus, as seen here...

and the near spineless T. pachanoi like this one...

Same species, one's just wild and the other, well, not so wild, but if I was to judge budgerum's plant then I would lean towards calling it T. pachanoi as it looks to be more cultivar than feral. But who really knows, it could be a complete hodgepodge of genes...maybe even having T. cuzcoensis.

~Michael~

Edited December 9, 2011 by M S Smith