Help identifying this cactus.. san pedro? you tell me

gonefishen24 · Post by **gonefishen24** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:59 pm

Just bought this house have this cactus growing in my yard can anyone help me identify this bugger??
It looks very similar to a san pedro but i cant tell for sure..

iann · Post by **iann** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:09 pm

Trichocereus flowers are hairy, that's what the name means. These are naked. Presumably Cereus peruvianus.

GermanStar · Post by **GermanStar** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:17 pm

That was my thought, too. Likely a Peruvian. Looks quite a bit like a San Pedro, but about twice the size in regard to thickness, height and spread. Super fast grower, that attractive little cactus may begin to overwhelm your yard in 2 or 3 short years.

gonefishen24 · Post by **gonefishen24** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:28 pm

i dont think its peruvian the spines are tiny alot like a san pedro.. i recent purchase a san pedro cuting to plant and it shares alot of the same characteristics the grooves that make the star shape seem to be much deeper than the san pedro grooves. u can see what i mean star shape by this pic

so what do you think is a really big pedro or something else?

iann · Post by **iann** » Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:41 pm

It isn't a Trichocereus of any kind. Full stop, end of story.

If not Cereus peruvianus then it may be Cereus repandus. I don't know how common that one is in yards, but the pinkish flower buds are a better match. I've seen them naked and I've seen them spiny, assuming they were named correctly in the first place. I think they're both lumped into the same species now, but some growers still use separate names. There's also C. jamacaru that is similar. I don't know Cereus too well but there's only a handful of them that you're likely to find in a garden.