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Black Spine Cereus Huntingtonianus Plant
Packet of 1x well established plant sent bare rooted!
It looks god damn stunning in my humble opinion, and if your a fan of black spines then this is a must have.
It’s a very hardy and fast growing plant with a foggy and heavily debated botanical history.
I managed to track down a botanical record and photograph of the plant labelled “No. 130 William Hertrich examining Cereus huntingtonianus, about 1935.” William Hertrich was Superintendent of Botanical there from 1927 to 1949 and the Huntington Botanical Gardens still stands.
Some very knowledgeable folks strongly assert that Cereus huntingtonianus or Huntingtons Organ Pipe cactus is actually a selection of Cereus forbesii that was given the name “Cereus huntingtonianus” to demonstrate its uniqueness. I can say that it doesn’t look like anything like the other Cereus forbesii I have, but that also doesn’t mean much.
It has also been suggested that it is actually Cereus childsii, which if so is actually just a form of Cereus variabilis, as are a few other quite different looking cacti.
Regardless Cereus huntingtonianus is the name I acquired this species as and it fits perfectly as far as I can tell. Having Cereus childsii heritage I was hoping it had red fleshed fruit but unfortunately that isn’t the case.
The fruit this guy produces are very brightly orange to red skinned, small to medium sized, with sweet white flesh and very small seeds in low numbers. The fruit flesh tastes of apple and tropical fruit and it has a nice crumbly sherbetty texture.
The plant gets a lovely blue colour with maturity and the areolas where the black spines come out get little furry white tufts. Makes it really pop and my pics just don’t do it justice.
I am hoping that crossing this fella with my other Apple cactus is going to create some really interesting hybrids. I am especially looking forward to crossing it with the other black spined Cereus relative, Cereus aethiops.
It makes a great rootstock for Trichocereus, reliably grafts to Hylocereus, Selenicereus and every other Cereus I have tried, and its a stunning feature plant in it’s own right.
I reckon they look bloody awesome and while it isn’t cheap it’s pretty great value for such a scarce species!
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!
