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Max-01 seal. monstrose growth, long spines recorded.

Other Trichocereus

Max-01

Well documented

Also written as Max, MX-01

Max-01 is recognised by the bumps under its : each one carries a long notch that arcs the whole way down, giving the ribs a strange, almost profile that at least one experienced grower thinks is not true monstrose growth at all. It was rescued from a Los Angeles collector's garden after the was bulldozed, and it spread through friends rather than through a commercial release. Growers report it thickens up well and grows longer spines in full sun, and it readily. No species has been assigned to it.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

  • areole protrusions
  • long notches
  • fat growth
  • monstrose look
  • grafts well

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

Of the 14 things this page says, 5 name who reports them and 9 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

Not recorded

No source named a species for this one.

Filed under Other Trichocereus

Parents

Not recorded

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

Origin

The plant came out of a Los Angeles garden whose owner, a past president of the city's cactus and succulent society, had died; the garden itself was bought some years later.

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 Max-01. 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 tree-removal job later flattened the mother plant under a bulldozer, but Desmond Stetson rescued a number of pieces first.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Instead of a hyped commercial release, the moved hand to hand among friends in the Southern California cactus scene.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Mark Ostrom is named as a key source for the material now in circulation.Reported, but not confirmed.

Part of the recorded discussion is growers defending the name as a genuinely distinct plant rather than a label invented to talk the price up.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Where the name comes from

The plant came out of a Los Angeles garden whose owner, a past president of the city's cactus and succulent society, had died; the garden itself was bought some years later.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

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.

Ribs
ribs and areoles: every areole sits on a pronounced bump, and from the side the notch runs as a long arc down the whole length of that bump.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Areoles seated on pronounced bumps with a notch down them is a plausible rib form here.
Spines
They come in longer when it is grown in strong light.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Spines commonly come in longer under strong light.
Growth habit
The effect is odd enough to read as monstrose, although the grower who described it doubts that it truly is.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.The plant can bulk up very thick.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Considerable stem girth is well within what the genus achieves.It takes grafting well, with success reported on and on grandiflorus.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Trichocereus graft readily onto other columnar stock, so success on both rootstocks is unremarkable for the genus.Moving it into full sun is advised, which thickens the column and lengthens the spines.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Full sun thickening the column and lengthening spines is typical Trichocereus response to strong light.

What the sources say

The wiki page carries a banner saying it was assembled by a bot from community chat and has not been checked by an editor. Whether the plant is genuinely monstrose is openly disputed on the wiki page — it looks it, but the closest observer thinks not.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Drawing of two plain Trichocereus columns of different heights, standing for the wider genus rather than one plant.
A Trichocereus column, drawn. We don't grow this one, and we will not borrow anybody else's photograph of it.

Filed under the same family, Other Trichocereus. 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.