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Bridgesii "Big Perm" seal. long spines recorded.

Bridgesii

Bridgesii "Big Perm"

Well documented

Also written as Big Perm

Big Perm is a kept for one reason: extraordinarily long, curling spines, one of which its finder measured at around ten inches. Mitchell Fortner picked it out at a large Southern California nursery, and went into wider circulation after a storm damaged the mother stand. Beyond the spines, no count or description has been recorded.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

  • ten-inch spines
  • curly spines
  • grafts well

BridgesiiNamed clone: One original plant and every cutting taken from it, given a name by a grower.

Of the 10 things this page says, 3 name who reports them and 7 are marked as something we cannot confirm. Where a line is not settled, it says so underneath.

Added 23 Aug 2026

At a glance

Species

Trichocereus bridgesii

syn. Echinopsis lageniformis

Filed under Bridgesii

Parents

Not recorded

No source names a mother or a father for this one.

Origin

Mitchell Fortner, who found the plant.

no source says whether it is seed-grown or a cutting line

In the yard

Not in the yardAsk if you are after one

Family line

what the record holds

No source in this library records a cross for Bridgesii "Big Perm". Nobody names a mother or a father for it, and no other entry here names it as a parent.

That is the record, not an oversight: of the 749 names in this library, 693 have no recorded relation either. Most named clones were selected, cut and passed along without anyone writing down what they came out of. A parent goes in here when a source states it and never because a name looks like one — a wrong pedigree would travel further than a blank one, because pedigrees get copied.

If you know where it came from, tell us — a person reads everything before it appears.

The longer version

A severe storm later damaged Fortner's mother stand, which is what put several large cuttings into circulation.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

The community wiki suggests the name is a joking film reference rather than a description.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

A California nursery that grows it describes the same plant for the same reason — a bridgesii whose spines grow long and curl as it matures, which is what the name refers to — and adds that they come away easily in transit and grow back long on new growth.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

The two records do not place the plant in the same part of the state. The community wiki has it found at a large nursery in Southern California; the nursery calls it a Central Californian bridgesii.Reported, but not confirmed.Neither is corrected here, and the disagreement is kept where it can be seen.Reported by one source, and not corroborated anywhere else.

Where the name comes from

Mitchell Fortner spotted the plant at a large nursery in Southern California and singled it out for its spines.Reported, but not confirmed.

Character

A bar is drawn only where one of the lines below states it — never from the species, never from a photograph.

  • Not documented yet.

  • nearly smooth to heavily spined: this one leans towards heavily spined, read from the spines line below.

  • Not documented yet.

Spines
The whole point of the is its , unusually long and curling, with one measured at about ten inches.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Long, curling spines occur in the genus, and that length is within its extremes.
Growth habit
It has been propagated successfully by .One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Grafting is a standard and reliable way to propagate Trichocereus clones.

What the sources say

All the recorded detail comes from a single grower's account.Reported, but not confirmed.

Drawing of a bridgesii-type column: slim, with few ribs, areoles set widely apart and long needle spines.
A Bridgesii column, drawn. We don't grow this one, and we will not borrow anybody else's photograph of it.

Filed under the same family, Bridgesii. The better-documented ones come first.

Keep exploring

Cultivar histories in this hobby are passed between growers; where sources disagree we say so rather than pick a side.