A visit to NMCR

[trucha]

This may possibly only interest some cactus people who did business with them while NMCR still existed.

http://troutsnotes.com/visiting-nmcr-2010/

[M S Smith]

I had some dealings with Horst in the 90s when I shared with him photocopies of ethnobotanical information regarding his cactus and he shipped me some plants. Very nice guy and I hope Steve at Mesa Garden took over some of his efforts. Thanks for the information...I wasn't aware of the matters. Otherwise, I like the new format of your web page, but I'm a little embarrassed by the prominence of my name. I've done little for my legacy in the last few years, but what's the need when I got you? Thanks!

~Michael~

[trucha]

No problem Michael. Its hard for your name not to be prominent since you were the person who made me aware of the hair color issue (and hence show up in the title of one of the main page articles).

I seem to recall us starting that line of discussion with me trying to dismiss your observation as being trivial. I'm really glad that you persisted and that I heard you as it opened my understanding into a wide and unusually productive area of thought.

[M S Smith]

I see you also are addressing the possibility that the "pachanot" bears some relation to T. bridgesii, something I believe I was the first to propose. I love your work as usual, thanks for pressing forward, something I seem to be less inclined to do these days, but it's been a rough couple years for me with personal matters, but these seem to finally be settling out for the best.

~Michael~

[trucha]

Yeah, I'm increasingly of the belief it is a hybrid of a bridgesii and a pachanoi of some sort. The flowers sure suggest it.

MAYBE it is just a short-spined bridgesii but the vigor, flowers and the expression of morphologies in the F1s when used as a hybrid parent all suggest it is a hybrid.

(Of course when Schumann was trying (in Monatschefte fuer Kakteenkunde) to correct his horrible error appearing in Martius' Flora Brasiliensis concerning macrogonus (where he had mistakenly accepted Glaziou's wacky proposal and included that bad image and wrong half a description -- entirely thanks to Glaziou) he commented that he had come to believe that macrogonus and the short-spined bridgesii were synonymous. I think the reason that problem bit by Schumann appearing in Martius gets remembered and not Schumann's MfK article is due to most Americans only speaking English and Schumann's correction only appearing in German.)

Maybe the pachanot came from the wild (via Blossfeld or Hutchison) but maybe it came from horticulture (via Hutchison). The probabilities have narrowed it down to less than a handful of candidates (with those two people leading the pack by far) but any actual solid proof still is someplace in the future.

An amusing true anecdote about the pachanot:

Many years ago Carlos Ostolaza stopped by and visited me in Texas. He was looking at my collection and asked if I had any pachanoi. This is long before I realized pachanot was something different.

I said sure, right there, pointing to my field of many pachanot. He said pachanoi looks quite different and suggested they might be short spined bridgesii or something else.

I was perplexed but did not snap at the time.

Edited November 8, 2014 by trucha

[M S Smith]

Wow, I'm stunned. Great stuff. Like I said, thanks for pressing forward.

~Michael~

[trucha]

I suspect that you might enjoy today's additions completing the NMCR visit.

Also I suspect you will be rather entertained whenever I get my shit together and finally get "The Macrogonus Onus" online.

[Gunter]

Looking forward to it!

[Caudata]

that "puquiensis" is beautiful.