Peruvianus

Peruvianus Rick Yo

Partially documented

Rick Yo is the best small illustration in the community wiki of a plant looking different in different places: the same grows distinctly shorter spines under low light, which is what growers in northern Europe see.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.The wiki's account has the line made by one collector from two plants a taxonomist had identified as peruvianus, with neither parent named — and that account sits on a page the wiki itself marks as unchecked, so read it as an account rather than a record.Reported, but not confirmed.It is grown in several countries, so buyers comparing two photographs of it may be comparing two climates rather than two plants.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

light-driven spines
short-spined in shade
peruvianus type

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

Of the 15 things this page says, 4 name who reports them and 11 are marked as something we cannot confirm. Where a line is not settled, it says so underneath.

Updated 29 Aug 2026Added 23 Aug 2026

Species

Trichocereus peruvianus

syn. Echinopsis peruviana

Filed under Peruvianus

Parents

Trichocereus peruvianusTrichocereus peruvianus

Seed parent: Trichocereus peruvianus · Pollen parent: Trichocereus peruvianus

Origin

One unchecked wiki page has it established by a grower from a cross of two clones another had identified as peruvianus, and distributed internationally.

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

tap any name to visit it

Seed parentTrichocereus peruvianusPollen parentTrichocereus peruvianusPeruvianus Rick Yoyou are here

Every ring is that plant’s own seal, in its family’s colour — open one to keep going.

Each plant wears its own seal here, coloured by its family — so a cross shows which side brought what before you read a name. A dashed ring is a plant with no page here yet, and a wire is only ever drawn from a parent somebody wrote down. Children are worked out from the other entries rather than stored on this one, so recording a cross anywhere lights it up on both plants.

The line matters as much as the box. A dashed line is a cross we can report but cannot confirm. Every cross drawn here is at that weakest reading, which is the true state of this plant's record.

Drawn 3 generations each way. Everything our sources record for this plant is in the drawing; the family stops there, not the tree.

The account has it made by crossing two clones a taxonomist had identified as peruvianus; neither parent plant has a name on record, and the itself rests on that one unchecked page.Reported, but not confirmed.

The longer version

One collector is credited on the wiki page with putting the line together. The page is bot-compiled from community discussion and marked as unchecked, so the credit is somebody's recollection rather than a record, and this library does not print a private person's name on that footing.Reported, but not confirmed.

The same account describes it as a cross between two clones a taxonomist had identified as peruvianus. Neither the cross nor the identification is written down anywhere we can check, so it is recorded here as a claim and not as a finding.Reported, but not confirmed.

The plant has since travelled internationally: the page has it grown in Germany and sold in the United States. It names a collector and a vendor, and neither is corroborated anywhere, so neither is repeated here.Reported, but not confirmed.

Where the name comes from

One unchecked wiki page has it established by a grower from a cross of two clones another had identified as peruvianus, and distributed internationally. Nothing else on record confirms any of that.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 nearly smooth, read from the spines line below.
Not documented yet.

Spines: Grows a distinctly shorter spine form in lower-light climates than it does in bright ones.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Spine length in this genus commonly shortens under weaker light, so the same clone can differ by climate.The clone changes its spine expression with light, producing a distinctly short-spined form in low light.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Spine length in this genus does respond to light and growing conditions, so a shorter-spined low-light form is unremarkable.
Growth habit: The short-spined form is what growers in dimmer northern European conditions such as Germany report seeing.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.Good airflow is advised along with the usual free-draining mix and infrequent deep watering.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Airflow, sharp drainage and infrequent deep watering are standard, sane culture for these cacti.

What the sources say

If you are ever tempted to identify a plant from a photograph, this is the entry to read twice: the same genetics grow different spines depending on where they live.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Environmental plasticity in spination is real in this genus, so photographs alone are a poor basis for identification.The wiki page carries a banner saying it was assembled by a bot from community chat and has not been checked by an editor. Our own notes already cite this clone as its worked example of phenotypic plasticity, and the two accounts agree.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

A Peruvianus column, drawn. We don't grow this one, and we will not borrow anybody else's photograph of it.

Filed under the same family, Peruvianus. 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.

Learned from

sanpedrocact.us, the community Trichocereus wiki (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Our own reading of the facts above, not a claim any source makes

This entry rests on one record. Every fact above traces back to sanpedrocact.us, the community Trichocereus wiki (CC BY-NC 4.0). No second, independent source has confirmed it, so read it as one account rather than as a checked fact. Where we do find a second source we name it here, and the register shows how much of this site rests on each.

Links go to the channel, the subreddit or the front page of a site — never to one video, one post or somebody else’s product page. Nothing above is copied from any of them: every entry is written fresh from a fact list, with the source recorded against each fact as it went in.

Written from scratch off a cited fact list, never copied. Learned from the sanpedrocact.us community wiki (CC BY-NC 4.0), @sanpedromastery6262 and @IMDAVESBUD on YouTube, r/sanpedrocactus and medicactus.com's buyer guides, then checked against university extension horticulture, botanical gardens, cactus and succulent societies and the published botanical record. I will not name a plant from a photograph.

Every source behind this site →

At a glance