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Poots Validus seal. long spines recorded.

Other Trichocereus

Poots Validus

Well documented

Also written as T. validus cv. Fabrante, Poots val

Poots Validus, also written as T. validus cv. Fabrante, is a very fat, many-ribbed plant with a serious spine load: ten to fifteen mid-length spines per plus one long central, coming in honey-gold and sharp enough to go through heavy work gloves. Its flowers are white and small for the genus. The line goes back to a bought in the late 1970s off the back of a truck in El Sobrante, California; Fabrante is the label for from that same property, and there are others, including a cuzcoensis and a . The cutting planted then is now a large stand.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

  • very fat
  • many ribs
  • golden spines
  • extremely sharp
  • small white flowers

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

Of the 12 things this page says, 5 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 validus

syn. Echinopsis valida

Filed under Other Trichocereus

Parents

Not recorded

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

Origin

A cutting of this plant was bought in the late 1970s in El Sobrante, California, from an elderly man selling material off the back of his truck that he had gathered on his travels.

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 Poots Validus. 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

Species, as our sources record it: validus; also written as T. validus cv. Fabrante.Reported by one source, and not corroborated anywhere else.

Fabrante is the label used for clones that trace back to that one El Sobrante property, and the word blends the property owner's surname with the town's name.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Other Fabrante clones exist, including a cuzcoensis and a peruvianus.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Soon after buying it, Poots put a cutting in the ground at the front corner of the fenced yard by the car park, and it has grown into an enormous stand.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Where the name comes from

A cutting of this plant was bought in the late 1970s in El Sobrante, California, from an elderly man selling material off the back of his truck that he had gathered on his travels.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.

Spines
Roughly ten to fifteen mid-length spines per areole plus one long central spine.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. A dozen or so shorter radials with one longer central is a routine areole pattern here.New growth comes through honey-gold, with brownish-gold tips.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Golden to brownish new spines that darken or fade with age are common in the genus.Unusually sharp and needle-like even by the standards of the spinier Trichocereus — the grower reports they go through puncture-resistant work gloves, which nothing else on the property does.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
Growth habit
Exceptionally thick, with a high count.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Thick columnar stems with many ribs fall within the normal variation of the genus.
Flowers
White, and small for a Trichocereus.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

What the sources say

Validus is one of the names that has moved out of Trichocereus entirely under the current treatment, which carries it in the synonymy of Leucostele terscheckii — the same species as the big Argentine cardón. That is worth knowing, because it explains why a plant this heavily armed does not look like the San Pedro group it is filed beside.Reported by one source, and not corroborated anywhere else.

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.