Long-form articles on legality, conservation, collecting, and rare cacti.
San Pedro cactus is Trichocereus pachanoi, a fast-growing Andean columnar cactus from Ecuador and Peru at 2,000-3,300 m. Taxonomy, habitat, morphology, named clones, and collector cultivation.
Miracle-Gro Cactus, Palm and Citrus soil kills rare cacti because the bag is 70-80% peat moss, perlite, and bark fines. Here is the autopsy of what is in the bag, why those ingredients fail, and the five-mineral collector mix that replaces it.
Every cactus is a succulent, but most succulents are not cacti. The difference is one structure: the areole. Here’s how to spot it in 60 seconds.
From the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan biosphere reserve and the fog-fed Atacama to the Huntington Desert Garden and the Princess of Wales Conservatory, 12 ranked destinations where collectors and serious travelers can see the world’s rarest cacti in habitat and in cultivation.
Take this cactus personality quiz to find which of 12 rare genera, from Ariocarpus to Turbinicarpus, matches your collecting style. Ten questions, twelve possible matches, no email gate.
A comprehensive reference guide for the 2026 CITES Appendix I listed cacti, explaining the difference between Appendix I and II, and what that means for collectors.
A guide for collectors explaining what field numbers are, who the major Copiapoa fieldworkers were, and how to use the Field Number Database.
Owning San Pedro cactus as an ornamental is generally legal across the United States. Mescaline, the alkaloid the plant contains, is Schedule I under the federal Controlled Substances Act. This 50-state guide explains where the line sits, why no state names Trichocereus by botanical name, and how the Louisiana, Idaho, and Oklahoma vendor-blog myths get the statute wrong.
Fifteen cacti ranked by wild population count, IUCN status, and habitat loss rate. From Mammillaria herrerae (~430 wild plants in less than a square kilometre) to the recovered Sclerocactus tobuschii on the Edwards Plateau, with verified data on every entry.
The illegal cactus trade drives entire species toward extinction. Operation Atacama, the Big Bend Living Rock prosecutions, and the South African Conophytum crisis on the documented record, with named defendants, court findings, and what seed grown cultivation offers as the alternative.
