Reference
Glossary
The words you will meet most in a listing, a care thread or one of my guides.
110 terms
If you are buying your first one
Acclimate
To move a plant to brighter light, drier air or colder weather gradually, in small steps, so it has time to adjust.
Aeration
Air spaces in the soil.
Air pot
Growers call it a fabric or perforated plastic pot that lets air reach the sides of the root ball.
Albino
Growers call it a seedling born with no green pigment at all.
Alternaria
A fungal disease that shows as banded light-and-dark patches, or rings of tan and dark color, on the skin — and the patches can crack open, growers say.
Apical dominance
Growers call it the plant's habit of putting all its growth into the single tip at the top.
Areole
Growers describe it as the small felt-covered spot on the rib where spines, flowers, fruit and new branches all come from.
Bagging (closed pollination)
Growers call it tying a fine mesh bag over a flower bud before it opens, so insects cannot bring pollen you did not choose.
Bare rootStart here
Sellers call it sold or shipped with the soil washed or shaken off the roots.
Basal
Growers use it for anything at or near the base of the plant.
Bevel
Growers use it for trimming the outer edge of a cut face at an angle so that only soft inner flesh, and no tough outer skin, meets the other piece in a graft.
BIN
"Buy it now." In community sale posts, sellers use it for a fixed price you can claim by commenting, rather than bidding.
Bipolaris (tip rot)
A fungal disease that attacks the growing tip, turning it into a wet black mess, growers say.
Blemish
Growers call it a mark on a plant's skin, such as a scar, a scuff, an old healed insect bite, sun stress or corking.
Bottom watering
Growers call it standing a pot in a tray of water so the soil draws it up from below, instead of pouring water on top
Bridgesii
One of the main species in this group, also called Bolivian Torch, with usually four to eight blunt ribs and often long needle-like spines, growers say.
Caespitose
Growers call it constantly making new heads instead of growing one tall column.
CallusStart here
The hard, dry, shiny scab that forms over a fresh cut as it heals.
Chamfer
Growers use it for shaving the sharp top edge off a flat cut.
Chlorosis
Growers use it for yellowing caused by the plant making less chlorophyll.
Clone
One original plant and every piece ever cut from it.
Cotyledon
Growers call it one of the two little horn-shaped first "leaves" a cactus seedling emerges with, before it grows any spines.
Crested (cristate)
Growers call it a growth form where the single growing point stretches into a line instead of a point, so the plant grows in wavy fans that look brain-like or coral-like.
Cross
Growers call it putting pollen from one plant onto the flower of another, and the seed that comes of it
Cultivar
Growers call it a named variety that people deliberately bred or selected, as opposed to one that turned up in the wild.
Cut to orderStart here
The seller takes the cutting off the mother plant only after you order it, so the drying time happens after you pay: one to two weeks for an ordinary cutting, longer when the air is very humid, sellers say.
Cutting
A piece cut off a bigger plant and rooted as a plant of its own.
Degrafting
Growers call it cutting a grafted top off its rootstock so it can grow on its own roots.
Dormancy
The rest period when a plant stops growing.
EC (electrical conductivity)
Growers call it a meter reading of how much fertilizer is dissolved in water.
Echinopsis
The other genus name these plants get filed under.
Edema
See humidity blister.
Epidermis
The plant's skin.
Epithet
The second half of a two-word botanical name: the pachanoi in Trichocereus pachanoi.
EtiolationStart here
Growers call it new growth that comes out noticeably thinner than the rest of the stem.
Farina
Growers call it the powdery blue-gray bloom on the skin of some plants.
Field capacity
Growers call it soil that holds as much water as it can without any pooling or dripping — damp, not wet.
Field code (accession code)
Growers call it a collector's number instead of a name: initials and a figure, like BK10805.1.
Foliar feeding
Growers call it spraying diluted nutrients onto the plant's skin instead of watering them into the soil.
Fruit set
Growers call it whether a pollinated flower actually goes on to make a fruit.
Germination
Growers call it a seed coming to life and pushing out its first root.
Glaucous
Covered in a blue-gray powdery coating, growers say.
Growhole
Growers use it as their informal word for the areole — the felted spot the spines come out of — in the phrase "seagulls over growholes".
Hardening off
Slowly getting a sheltered plant used to real conditions — more light, drier air, more wind — by increasing exposure in small steps over weeks.
Healed
Growers call a cut or a mark healed once it has dried over and sealed.
Heat packStart here
Sellers call it a disposable warmer added to a shipping box in cold months so the plant does not freeze in transit
Humidity blister (edema)
Growers call it a raised bump on the skin that appears when the roots push in more water than the skin's pores can breathe out
Hybrid
Growers call it a plant grown from the seed of a cross between two different plants.
IBA / rooting hormone
A powder or gel sold to speed up root formation.
Inorganic (in a soil mix)
The mineral, non-rotting part of a soil mix — pumice, lava rock, perlite, grit.
Landrace
Growers call it a population of plants from one wild place, rather than one named plant.
Lineage
Growers call it a plant's parents, and their parents.
Lockout
Growers use it for when soil chemistry, usually the wrong pH, stops a plant taking up a nutrient that is physically present.
Log method
Growers call it laying a stem down horizontally and half-burying it.
Macrogonus
A species name for stout, blue, well-spined plants, growers say.
Mealybug
A sap-sucking pest that looks like small patches of white sticky cotton wool around areoles or in the roots.
Meristem
Growers call it the growing point at the very tip, where new stem is made.
Mid cutStart here
Growers call it a section taken from the middle of a column, with no growing tip on it.
Monstrose
Growers call it a growth form where the plant grows in strange, irregular, lumpy or melted-looking shapes instead of neat ribbed columns.
Mother plant
Growers call it the established plant that cuttings are taken from.
Mycorrhizae
Fungi that partner with plant roots, growers say.
OP (open pollinated)
Growers call it seed where the mother is known — the fruit grew on it — but the pollen father is not, because bees got there first.
Organic (in a soil mix)
Growers call it the part of a soil mix that was once alive — compost, humus, worm castings.
Pachanoi
Growers call it the species most people mean by "San Pedro".
PC ("predominant cultivar")
Growers call it the single clone that makes up the overwhelming majority of San Pedro sold in North American nurseries and garden centers.
Pereskiopsis
Growers call it a thin, leafy, fast-growing cactus used as grafting stock for seedlings.
Perlite
The white popcorn-like mineral in bagged potting mixes, used to make soil drain faster.
Peruvianus
A species also called Peruvian Torch, growers say.
pH
Growers call it how acid or alkaline the water and soil are.
Phenotype
Growers call it what a plant actually looks like, as opposed to what genes it carries.
Phytoplasma
Growers describe it as a bacteria-like organism spread by sap-sucking insects.
Pollen
Growers call it the yellow dust the anthers carry.
Pollen parent
Growers call it the plant the pollen came from: the father of a cross.
PPFD
Growers call it a measurement of how much usable light actually reaches the plant, used for indoor growing.
Provenance
Growers call it where a plant came from and whose hands it passed through.
Pumice
A porous volcanic rock used in soil mixes.
Pup
Growers call it a young plant that sprouts from an areole of a bigger one.
Quarantine
Growers call it keeping a newly bought plant well away from your others for a period, and inspecting it, before it joins the collection.
Rootbound
Growers call it roots that have filled the pot completely and started circling.
Rootstock (stock)
The rooted bottom plant in a graft: the one supplying the roots.
Rot
Growers call it soft, squishy, dark tissue.
Runoff
Growers call it the water that comes out of the drainage holes.
Rust fungus (anthracnose)
Growers call it a fungal disease showing as reddish-orange specks or patches.
"Seagulls over growholes"
Growers call it the memory trick for which way up a cutting goes.
Scale
A sap-sucking pest that looks like small white, tan or brown dots stuck to the skin.
Scion
The top piece in a graft: the one being carried and fed.
Scopulicola ("scop")
Growers call it a species with very few ribs, essentially no spines, and glossy green skin with a smooth melted look.
Seed parent
Growers call it the plant that carried the flower and the fruit: the mother of a cross.
Seedling
Growers call it a plant grown from seed, as against a cutting.
Self-sterile (not self-fertile)
Unable to make seed with its own pollen.
Slab graft
Growers call it a round slice of stem, cut in half and laid on its side onto the rootstock.
Sooty mold
Growers call it a black, soot-like film sitting on the surface, usually in the rib grooves of older growth.
Spination
A plant's spines taken as one feature — how many come out of each areole, how long they run, what color they are and how they sit.
Spinosad
Growers call it an insecticide used against thrips and mites.
Springtail
Growers call it a tiny harmless insect often mistaken for a pest.
Stump (base cut)
Growers call it the lowest piece of a column, cut off above the soil, often already rooted.
Sunburn
Permanent scarring from too much sun too suddenly.
Surface sowing
Laying seed on top of the mix and pressing it down instead of covering it.
Thrips
Growers call it tiny elongated insects that feed at the growing tip and leave tan, sandpaper-textured scarring.
Tip cutStart here
Sellers call it a cutting that includes the growing point, so it carries on growing from that tip.
Top dressing
Growers call it a layer of grit or fine gravel spread over the soil surface.
TPM
Trichocereus pachanoi monstrose: the lumpy, irregular form of San Pedro, and the pachanoi counterpart to TBM, growers say.
Trichocereus
Growers describe it as the group of tall columnar cacti native to the Andes, which includes San Pedro.
Variety (var.)
A botanical rank below the species: a form that keeps its own look in the wild, the way San Pedro is now written as a variety of macrogonus.
Vascular ring
The circle of conducting tissue you can see in the middle of a freshly cut face.
VPD
Growers call it a measure combining temperature and humidity that describes how easily a plant can breathe.
Witch's broom
Growers call it wildly abnormal clustered growth: a pup on a pup on a pup, each one already pushing more from its own areoles.
Yearling
Growers call it a seed-grown plant about a year old: past the fragile seedling stage, not yet an adult, and treated as its own stage by anyone raising seed.
Something missing, or something wrong?
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Learned from the sanpedrocact.us community wiki (CC BY-NC 4.0) and from @sanpedromastery6262 on YouTube.
Every photograph in the yard pages and the shop is of a plant grown here, except where a listing says it was grown by somebody else — it says so on the listing, above the price.
Every source behind these pages →