some Trichocereus that are less commonly encountered

[trucha]

crassiarboreus (from Ritter FR 662 seed; at HBG)

lucernatus (apparently an s.n. from Harry Johnson seed - field collected in Peru; at HBG)

pallarensis (at UCBG)

[Evil Genius]

Hi T, awesome pics! Keep them coming! I´ve planted many Crassiarboreus seeds and i was very thrilled to see how they are going to look like! Do you know if there are other Crassiarboreus Types available? If not, my seed have been some FR 662 Seeds too! The germination rate was great!

The lucernatus is a stunner! As it´s field collected i see few chances to get it in cultivation! :-(

I´m really looking for the upcoming hybrids from trichocereus pallarensis!

thanks for posting! bye Eg

[M S Smith]

Could the T. lucernatus be synonymous with the T. glaucus from Sacred Succulents?

Here's a collection of six T. pallerensis grown from one seed packet from Sacred Succelents. The one in the center background looks most like the one at the UCBG.

~Michael~

[trucha]

It looks really similar but I would want to see the glaucus grown out in the ground before making the conclusion.

So far the glaucus I've seen was a bit fatter and upright even at my height.

The lucernatus goes radically prostrate to decumbent and sprawling in all directions. It almost has the growth habit of a Rathbunia alamosensis or something but with shorter branches.

It is also insanely prolific at branching. The plant images I took came out fairly crappy but I'll see if I can find a photo to illustrate this. (The Huntington is a horrible place for taking photos most of the day due to intense sun, shade and contrast issues. I was working with a sun shade being held by another person and a circular polarizer and a UV filter and still had many shots come out really badly, THe best window for taking photos is before they open to the public or lucking out and getting an overcast day with no rain. I don't live near there so its luck of the draw for me.)

ANother similar plant but also fatter still and upright is the chalensis. THey are probably all related and I'd like to learn more about how their native populations relate to each other geographically.

Did the pallarensis come from BBG seed or Ritter seed?

The BBG plants (they have more than one that do not seem to be clones but did come from RItter seeds) tends to flower at the same time as chalensis, puquiensis and several other nearby trichs.

[chilli]

Thanks trucha and M S, you guys just totally expanded my mind!

[M S Smith]

kt, here's the Sacred Succulents T. glaucus just a few weeks ago. One limb is being supported by another cactus. Both limbs were upright until there was a lot of rain. There wasn't a great deal of wind so I suspect it just sucked up all the water it could and got a little heavy and collapsed.

~Michael~

Edited September 8, 2007 by M S Smith

[trucha]

I'd still want to see SS's glaucus grown out in the ground before drawing any conclusions. It could be the same or it could be different. Spines on the lucernatus seem different but conditions of growth can cause plants to look quite different. The lucernatus at the Huntington resembles your fallen over plant more than what is growing at SS but shows no evidence of a tendency towards breaking when doing so. LA does get a lot of rain.

It is strongly arching, prostrate to decumbent and very profusely branching.