The shop is closed just now. The shop is not open for orders yet. Everything here is real and grown in my own yard — have a look around — but I am not taking money until the last few things are in place. Ask about a plant

Mysterious Yard
Cart, empty
Serra seal. 6 ribs recorded, short spines recorded.

Bridgesii

Serra

Well documented

Serra is a New Zealand named by the grower Lawrence Smith, who picked the name because nothing seen locally resembled it. It is thick-stemmed for a 2 m plant, holds a strongly blue, even after years outside, carries six ribs, and has that tilt distinctly upwards. Its identity moved from to bridgesoid as the namer reconsidered it, so the species is best treated as unsettled.Reported, but not confirmed.

  • very blue
  • six ribs
  • tilted areoles
  • thick column
  • 2 m tall

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

Of the 11 things this page says, 3 name who reports them and 8 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 botanical name on file. What the sources do say about its species is in the writing below.

Filed under Bridgesii

Parents

Not recorded

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

Origin

Lawrence Smith

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 Serra. 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: first taken for pachanoi, later described by the namer as a definite bridgesoid.Reported by one source, and not corroborated anywhere else.

Smith first read the plant as a pachanoi, then revised that and called it clearly bridgesoid instead.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

Smith also floated a possible link to the backeberg / clone, while noting they had not seen that clone in New Zealand.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

What the record holds

Lawrence Smith named the clone in New Zealand after concluding they had seen nothing else like it there.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 nearly smooth, read from the spines line below.

  • Not documented yet.

Skin
New growth comes in very blue and glaucous, and stayed that way after three years outdoors.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Heavy bloom on new growth is normal, and some clones hold their glaucous coating well over years outdoors.
Ribs
The photographed plant carries six.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
Spines
Short on fresh growth, but 5-7.5 cm (2-3 in) on the oldest sections — shorter than on young the same grower keeps.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
Growth habit
Thick for its size, with plants reaching about 2 m tall.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Thick stems on a plant of around two metres is an unremarkable proportion for this genus.
Notes
Areoles: they tilt noticeably upwards, which the namer had not seen on other New Zealand pachanoi.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

What the sources say

The namer changed their own species call on the wiki page, moving from pachanoi to bridgesoid and raising a possible link to the backeberg / PC clone that they could not check locally.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.

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.