Wood Chuck Posted June 27, 2022 (edited) Personally I think I will always call them Trichocereus, even though I`ve been told that now their name is Echinopsis. Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks and I have trouble pronouncing Echinopsis anyhow.. The genus Echinopsis has been is use since its first description in 1837 by Joseph Zuccharini, but the word was proposed by Karl Linnaeus back in 1737. The word derives from the Latin "echinos" meaning hedgehog or sea urchin and "opsis" meaning appearance, a reference to these plants dense covering of spines. Initially, it was used to classify relatively small cactus that fit this description, and didn`t really include columnar cactus at all. Most columnar cactus at this point in time belonged to the genus Cereus, derived from the Latin word for wax light or candle. In 1974 a botanist named Friedrich Gaimo concluded that Trichocereus and Echinopsis flowers were of the same type. His argument was that the ovary and floral tube lacked spines but possessed hairs, had a open or diffused type of nectary and two series of stamens. Due to Friedrich`s conclusions, and on account of the fact that Echinopsis was the older genus, all species in the Trichocereus genus were reclassified into Echinopsis. Edited June 27, 2022 by Wood Chuck 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
