Trichocereus/Echinopsis
 

Attachment 157764


This is an Echinopsis NOID hybrid. A large number of cactus genera formerly easily distinguishable in flower and with different growth forms have been lumped into the genus Echinopsis. This would have been known as Trichocereus. The stems are about 4"/10cm diameter and up to 5 feet/1.5 meters tall. They often spawl.

Es, for how long does the flower last?

Depends on temperatures. The former Trichocereus open in the very early morning. In hot weather, they fade by the afternoon. This one has flowered for two days, and by this afternoon it will be finished. Many former Trichocereus, like this one, will produce flowers off and on through the warm months if watered and fertilized regularly.

The smaller bodied and flowered plants that hobbyists formerly considered Echinopsis open flowers sometime after dusk. In hot weather they fade by the afternoon. If the plant is brought into the house they may last 3-4 days. There are a lot of these available; they were hybridized from day- and night-flowering species.

The night-flowering, mostly white Echinopsis and Trichocereus usually fade by the next afternoon.

Many hybrids are fragrant, usually with a citrus scent.

If you can find the small Echinopsis hybrids you should try one. They can grow outside all year in your climate. Most flower multiple times during spring-summer-fall. Stems cluster from the base; most grow to at most half the size of a football. (I mean a real football, the spherical white kind.) Some are never larger than a billiard ball.