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Echinopsis or Trichocereus

Migrated topic.
neb

neb

Rising Star
I am confused about this whole train of thought.

Is Echinopsis just another name for Trichocereus?

or is it the new name?

are they both valid?

whats the story here?

HALP!
 
Echinopsis is a genus name originally given by botanist Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini.

Trichocereus is I think a name used for columnar cacti of the Echinopsis genus, but you will surely get better answers from others.

For example, E. Pachanoi and T. Pachanoi are synonyms. It's the same plant.
 
IIUC, Trichocereus is the old name for the genus Echinopsis.

From Wikipedia:
Like several other taxonomic changes in Cactaceae, this one has not been universally accepted.[1] Amateur and professional growers still use names like Echinopsis (in the older sense), Lobivia, Setiechinopsis and Trichocereus, although many of the others listed above fell out of common usage long before the change.[citation needed]

Changing the genus name necessitated using some different specific epithets to avoid creating duplicate names. Thus both Echinopsis bridgesii and Trichocereus bridgesii previously existed. These are very different plants: Echinopsis bridgesii is a short clumping cactus, whereas Trichocereus bridgesii is a tall columnar cactus similar to E. (or T.) pachanoi. Under the new classification, Trichocereus bridgesii becomes Echinopsis lageniformis.[citation needed]

The genus name Trichocereus was given to a number of columnar cacti in 1909 by Vincenzo Riccobono, before the genus was subsumed—along with Lobivia—into Echinopsis in 1974 by Friedrich. A 2012 genetic and morphological study by Albesiano found Trichocereus to be monophyletic if it included three species of Harrisia.[2]
Click to expand...
 
The word Tricho-cereus means: hairy-candle...

Cereus relates to wax and torch, ergo candle.

The word Echin-opsis means: sea urchin-like...

When people use both names instead of just Echinopsis they tend to use Trichocereus for columnar plants and Echinopsis for more ball like plants. Intermediates exist and the distinction has limited use but is still used by collectors and vendors of seeds and plants.
 
Trichocereus and Echinopsis were two separate genuses that were combined by botanists.
As the older genus, Echinopsis got name priority so the combined group got that name and any instances where two species had the same species name the Echinopsis species got to keep its name.
This is why Trichocereus bridgesii became Echinopsis lageniformis, because a Echinopsis bridgesii already existed.
 
okay i see..

so echinopsis bridgesii is the cluster cactus?

and echinopsis lageniformis is the columnar one?

I am starting to understand a little bit more.
 
To add some current fun to that, Hunt and the folks who tell us what names are presently accepted or not (and who promoted Echinopsis for many years) now accept Trichocereus again. Interestingly Harrisia was merged with it.
 
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