Cactus Field Number Database
Search a cactus and succulent database built entirely around collector field numbers. Look up any of more than 59,000 records by collector, locality, or species name to trace where a plant was first found in habitat and who documented it. Every specimen we grow at rarecactus.com is matched against these records, so the provenance on each rare cactus page traces back to a real field collection.
A cactus collector field-number database is a tool used to identify wild specimens by searching for collector acronyms and field numbers. For example, FR 207 is Friedrich Ritter's number for a Copiapoa cinerea he collected at Taltal, Chile in June 1954. Each record traces the plant back to where it was collected (locality), the date collected, and the collector's name, acting as a "birth certificate" for the specimen.
The rarecactus.com field-number database is free to search and currently indexes 59,132 records from 280 collectors. Use this tool to select one or multiple genera.
59,132 field numbers · 280 collectors · 20 genera
| Field # ▲ | Collector ▲ | Species ▲ | Locality ▲ | Altitude ▲ | Date ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A 91/I/10c A BCSS | A | Parodia mammulosa | El Papagayo to Rincon, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/11a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium vatteri | Luyaba, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/12 A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium calochlorum var. proliferum | Las Rabonas, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/13a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium vatteri | Los Hornillos, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/13b A BCSS | A | Parodia mammulosa | Los Hornillos, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/14b A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium monvillei | Nina Paula, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/15 A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium quehlianum | Villa Carlos Paz | ||
| A 91/I/16 A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium capillaense | La Cumbre | ||
| A 91/I/17a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium capillaense | Capilla del Monte, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/17b A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium mostii | Capilla del Monte, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/17c A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium quehlianum | Capilla del Monte, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/18a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium capillaense | Ongamira, Ischillin, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/18b A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium monvillei | Ongamira, Ischillin, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/18c A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium erinaceum | Ongamira, Ischillin, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/19b A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium quehlianum | Villa Carlos Paz | ||
| A 91/I/19c A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium calochlorum | Villa Carlos Paz | ||
| A 91/I/1b A BCSS | A | Parodia mammulosa | San Roque, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/1c A BCSS | A | Echinopsis aurea | San Roque, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/20a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium schickendantzii | Cruz del Eje, turning for San Marcos Sierra, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/20b A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium quehlianum | Cruz del Eje, turning for San Marcos Sierra, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/22a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium riojense var. paucispinum | Salinas Grandes | ||
| A 91/I/22b A BCSS | A | Echinopsis leucantha | Salinas Grandes | ||
| A 91/I/23a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium riojense | Malanzan | ||
| A 91/I/23b A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium schickendantzii | Malanzan | ||
| A 91/I/25d A BCSS | A | Echinopsis leucantha | Los Colorados | ||
| A 91/I/27b A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium saglionis | Belén | ||
| A 91/I/27c A BCSS | A | Echinopsis huascha | Belén | ||
| A 91/I/28b A BCSS | A | Echinopsis leucantha | Hualfin | ||
| A 91/I/28c A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium saglionis | Hualfin | ||
| A 91/I/29a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium spegazzinii | Villa Desmontel | ||
| A 91/I/2a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium stuckertii | Suyuque Nuevo, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/2c A BCSS | A | Parodia mammulosa | Suyuque Nuevo, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/2d A BCSS | A | Echinopsis aurea | Suyuque Nuevo, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/31 A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium spegazzinii | Cafayate to Los Molinos | ||
| A 91/I/34c A BCSS | A | Echinopsis haematantha | Cachi | ||
| A 91/I/34d A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium spegazzinii | Cachi, Salta, Argentina | ||
| A 91/I/34e A BCSS | A | Echinopsis leucantha | Cachi | ||
| A 91/I/37 A BCSS | A | Echinopsis ancistrophora | La Caldera | ||
| A 91/I/38 A BCSS | A | Echinopsis densispina | Volcán | ||
| A 91/I/39b A cl-cactus | A | Parodia pseudostuemeri | Tilcara, Jujuy, Argentina 2550m | ||
| A 91/I/3c A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium schickendantzii | Suyuque to San Luis, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/41 A BCSS | A | Echinopsis bruchii | Tafi del Valle | ||
| A 91/I/43a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium ragonesei | Totoralejos, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/43c A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium schickendantzii | Totoralejos, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/44b A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium erinaceum | Ischillin, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/45 A cl-cactus | A | Gymnocalycium calochlorum | Ischillin, Cordoba | ||
| A 91/I/7b A BCSS | A | Echinopsis aurea | Achiras to La Punilla, San Luis | ||
| A 91/I/9c A BCSS | A | Echinopsis aurea | La Estanzuela, San Luis | ||
| A 91/II/10 A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium kieslingii var. alboareolatum | Huaco | ||
| A 91/II/11a A BCSS | A | Gymnocalycium schickendantzii | Huaco (Senke) |
Browse the field number database by collector and genus
The rarecactus.com field number database holds 59,132 wild-collection records from 280 collectors across 20 genera. Every list below opens the database filtered to one collector or one genus.
The database sorts by field number by default, so the first page of the table above groups one collector’s consecutive numbers rather than sampling all 59,132 records.
Field numbers by collector
Brian Francis Bates (BB) logged 3,549 records, more than any other collector in the database, and the 30 collectors below account for 32,720 entries between them.
- BB Brian Francis Bates3,549 records
- JN Jan Novák1,781 records
- TB Tomasz Blaczkowski1,775 records
- VOS Volker Schädlich1,718 records
- GC Graham Charles1,643 records
- CS Chris Sherrah1,626 records
- LB C. A. Ludwig Bercht1,603 records
- RH Ralf Hillmann1,464 records
- STO Helmut Amerhauser, Franz Strigl, Hans Till (either together, or separately)1,367 records
- PH Paul Hoxey1,311 records
- GF Norbert Gerloff1,120 records
- MSG Mesemb Study Group1,074 records
- WR W. Rausch1,023 records
- MU Andrzej Mucha924 records
- BE Franz Berger892 records
- GM Grzegorz Matuszewski811 records
- JAI Harald Jainta799 records
- MAW Mario Wick789 records
- FK Fred Kattermann707 records
- MS Mirek (Miroslav) Sochurek702 records
- IDD Igor D. Dráb679 records
- MM Massimo Meregalli677 records
- GN Gert Josef Albert Neuhuber637 records
- REP Werner Reppenhagen634 records
- SB Steven Brack590 records
- L Alfred Bernhard Lau583 records
- CH Jaromír Chvastek577 records
- MZ Milan Zachar574 records
- RS Roman Staník551 records
- PP Pavel Pavlíček540 records
Field numbers by genus
Gymnocalycium is the largest genus in the database with 13,171 records, followed by Echinopsis with 10,578 and Parodia with 5,920.
Each genus links to its filtered record list, and the five collector codes beside it are the ones who logged the most numbers in that genus.
- Gymnocalycium13,171 records genus guide
- Echinopsis10,578 records genus guide
- Parodia5,920 records
- Echinocereus5,005 records genus guide
- Copiapoa3,281 records genus guide
- Rebutia3,059 records
- Sulcorebutia2,756 records
- Eriosyce2,627 records
- Mammillaria2,565 records genus guide
- Ferocactus2,450 records genus guide
- Lithops1,916 records genus guide
- Ariocarpus1,727 records genus guide
- Turbinicarpus1,042 records genus guide
- Conophytum916 records
- Astrophytum835 records genus guide
- Discocactus448 records
- Lophophora361 records genus guide
- Uebelmannia225 records
- Blossfeldia153 records genus guide
- Aztekium97 records genus guide
Example field number records
A field number record pairs a collector code with the species, the locality and the collection date, as these 7 verified entries show.
| Field number | Collector | Species | Locality | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PP 1368 | PP | Ariocarpus retusus | El Potosí, Municipio Galeana | 2005 |
| BB 1083.04 | BB | Gymnocalycium pflanzii | Mataral to Los Negros | 21/10/2001 |
| PH 109.2 | PH | Ferocactus hamatacanthus | Entronque El Huizache | 23-Mar-98 |
| CS 103.4 | CS | Echinocereus pectinatus | Coneto Pass | 07/06/2007 |
| LB 4594 | LB | Echinopsis chamaecereus | Alemania, Ruta 68 | 2012 |
| AD 494 | AD | Lithops karasmontana subsp. bella | South-East of Garies, Impala Granite | 11-Mar-16 |
| VOS 16-2107 | VOS | Discocactus silicicola | Rio Apa, Concepción | 2016 |
New to field numbers? Read our collector’s guide to cactus field numbers for how the codes work and how to read them.
Cite & download
The rarecactus.com field number database indexes 59,132 collection records from 280 collectors across 20 genera, 10,273 of them with GPS coordinates. It is free to use and openly licensed. If you cite or build on the data, please reference the release below.
Suggested citation
Kealer, B. (2026). Cactus Field Number Database [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20792878
License CC0 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20792878 · Darwin Core-aligned CSV, 16 columns · updated September 2026
Data sources and acknowledgments
The collector field numbers gathered here are the work of the people who assigned them in the field and the volunteers who have compiled and published them over decades. rarecactus.com brings that published record together, then normalizes localities, removes duplicates across sources, adds coordinates, and links each entry to our encyclopedia. We are grateful to the compilations below and name them so their contribution stays visible.
- BCSS Field Number Query (Ralph Martin), the reference compilation of cactus and succulent collector numbers maintained for the British Cactus and Succulent Society.
- cl-cactus.com (CLudwig), collector field numbers and habitat photographs.
- Harald Jainta, Wild Lithops, field observations behind our Lithops population records, shared through our collaboration.
- John Miller, the 2001 Ariocarpus field-number compilation.
- GBIF, georeferenced herbarium and occurrence records used to verify coordinates.
The field numbers themselves are factual records of who found a plant and where. We publish them to keep that provenance visible, not to claim it as our own.
How this database is maintained
The database is maintained by Brian Kealer at Rare Cactus. New collector lists and corrections are added as they come in, and each release gets a version number.
Every release is also deposited on Zenodo under the CC0 public-domain dedication. Versions have been archived there since June 2026, and one DOI, 10.5281/zenodo.20792878, always points to the latest. That copy does not depend on this site staying online.
Found an error in a field number or a locality? Write to brian@rarecactus.com and the fix goes into the next release.