Trichocereus peruvianus ‘BBG 48.1540’ (Peruvian Torch)

Description

Type: Unrooted, callused cutting, ungrafted · Length: about 12 in · 2 available, sold individually

Peruvian torch BBG 48.1540 is a Trichocereus peruvianus clone named for its accession number at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, and we have two 12 inch cuttings of it for sale. The photo shows representative stems on our mother plant. Your cutting comes from the same clone at the same length, unrooted and ungrafted.

The Peruvian torch BBG 48.1540 accession

The garden still holds the original plant. Its records list accession 48.1540 as Echinopsis peruviana, common name San Pedro Macho, from Peru, filed earlier under Trichocereus peruvianus, with living plants in the Arid House and in the Deserts of the Americas collection.

Cuttings left Berkeley through the garden’s plant sales. Cactus Affinity bought one at the Spring 2006 sale and has distributed the clone since, which is how so many growers came to have it.

It grows with real conviction. One grower who planted a single 2 foot column in 2008 later had a 10 foot column with several basal pups.

An accession number is unusual provenance in a plant group where most clones carry only a nickname. It ties every BBG 48.1540 cutting to a single documented plant in a university collection, which you can still visit, and it means the identity of the clone does not depend on anyone’s memory. San Pedro Macho, the common name on the record, is a Peruvian name often applied to the Peruvian torch.

What to look for

Expect powdery, glaucous blue skin, broad rounded ribs and amber to honey brown spines from pale areoles, the classic Peruvian torch look, on a vigorous plant that builds a heavy column once its roots spread. Our stems show exactly that blue bloom.

A note on names, because the clone is often mislabeled. Some sellers list BBG 48.1540 as Sharxx American, but American Sharxx is a separate plant raised from Icaros seed, and Sharxx Blue is a different Australian clone from the Dawsons collection. All three are worth growing. They are just not the same plant, so if a seller cannot tell you which one you are buying, ask before you pay.

POWO places Trichocereus peruvianus under Echinopsis macrogona, and our Echinopsis peruviana species page covers the Peruvian torch in full.

How we grow it

At rarecactus.com we grow our Trichocereus mother plants outdoors in full sun in Orange County, California, in a 50/50 soil mix of organic and inorganic material. Both cuttings for sale here come off our own plant of the clone, and neither is a graft.

When your Peruvian torch BBG 48.1540 cutting arrives

If the base is dry and hard, it is ready to root. If not, leave it upright in bright shade for a few more days until it is.

Let it root in a dry area, standing upright and staked if it leans, in bright indirect light with no water until roots form, usually within a few weeks in warm weather. Once rooted, pot it in a 50/50 soil mix of organic and inorganic material, water lightly and step it up to full sun over two or three weeks. A clone this vigorous wants a deep, stable pot within a year or two, and it repays generous summer water with fast growth.

Provenance and legality

Trichocereus, like most cacti, is listed on CITES Appendix II, and this is cultivated stock grown in the United States. San Pedro and the Peruvian torch are legal to own as ornamental plants in all fifty states; our legality guide cites the statute state by state. Find more clones in the Peruvian torch cactus for sale collection, and the genus on the Echinopsis encyclopedia hub.