pach vs peru: original descriptions

[prier]

Dunno if anyone has posted this before, thought it might be of interest to some who don't have BRITTON & ROSE

Trichocereus pachanoi sp nov. (Britton & Rose 1920)

Plants tall, 3 to 6 meters high, with numerous strict branches, slightly glaucous when young, dark

green in age; ribs 6 to 8, broad at base, obtuse, with a deep horizontal depression above the

areole; spines often wanting, when present few, 3 to 7, unequal, the longest 1 to 2 cm. long, dark

yellow to brown; flower­buds pointed; flowers very large, 19 to 23 cm. long, borne near the top of

branches, night­blooming, very fragrant ; outer perianth­segments brownish red; inner perianth­

segments oblong, white; filaments long, weak, greenish; style greenish below, white above;

stigma­lobes linear, yellowish; ovary covered with black curled hairs; axils of scales on flower­tube

and fruit bearing long black hairs.

Collected by J. N. Rose, A. Pachano, and George Rose at Cuenca, Ecuador, September 17 to

24, 1918 (No. 22806, type).

This species is widely cultivated throughout the Andean region of Ecuador, where it is grown

both as an ornamental and as a hedge plant. In some of the lateral valleys on the western slope

of the Andes it appears to be native, as for instance above Alausi, but as it has doubtless long

been cultivated it is impossible to be sure of its natural habitat.

It is known to the Ecuadoreans as agua­colla or giganton and has been passing in Ecuador

under the names of Cereus peruvianus and Cereus giganteus. It is named for Professor Abelardo

Pachano of the Quinta Normal at Ambato, Ecuador, who accompanied Dr. Rose in 1918 on his

travels in the high Andes of Ecuador.

This species belongs to the high Andes, ranging from 2,000 to 3,000 meters in altitude. In the

Chanchan Valley it certainly comes down to about 2,000 meters and overlaps the upper range of

Lemaireocereus godingianus, which difers from it greatly in habit and fowers. Diferent as the two

plants are, Richard Spruce, keen botanist as he was, confused them, as the following quotation

will show; the part in italics refers to the Lemaireocereus: “The brown hill­sides began to be

diversified by an arborescent Cactus, with polygonal stems and white dahlia­like flowers, which,

Briareus­like, threw wide into the air its hundred rude arms. Lower down, at about 6,000 feet, I

saw specimens full 30 feet high and 18 inches in diameter.”

Trichocereus peruvianus sp. nov. (Britton & Rose 1920)

Plant 2 to 4 meters high with numerous erect or ascending, stout branches, 15 to 20 cm. in

diameter, glaucous when young; ribs 6 to 8, broad and rounded; areoles large, 2 to 2.5 cm. apart,

brown­felted; spines brown from the first, about 10, unequal, some of them 4 cm. long, rigid and

stout, not at all swollen at base; areoles on ovary and flower­tube hairy; mature flowers not seen

but evidently large and probably white.

Collected by Dr. and Mrs. Rose near Matucana, Peru, altitude 2,100 meters, July 9, 1914 (No.

18658).

This species resembles T. bridgesii but has stouter and darker spines. It is found on the western

slopes of the Andes at a much lower altitude than that species.


I would like but don't have the original descriptions for macrogonus and bridgesii, these are both in a book by SALM-DYCK (1850) in Gordon Rowley's personal collection.