Pilosocereus

Thank you all for an informative discussion and nice images on this particular topic of Pilosocereus. I bought these in 2012 at 3 inches in height, grew them to flowering maturity in Florida by 2018 and now have 1400 1-2 inch seedlings in pots. The flowers are yellow (no pink) and emerged from a somewhat wooly cephalium. The stems all have 8 ribs.
My seedlings have mostly 8 ribs, sometimes 9 or 10. I am not sure if they are Pilosocereus Odilensis, Leucocephalus var. Palmeri or some hybrid with Pachycladus. What are these please?








Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2019 06:29AM by alain.

Pilosocereus leucocephalus (palmeri) is a variable species and the flower may be whitish.
What about Odilensis ? i think it's not an official name, just a selling denomination ?

Hi,

« Pilosocereus odilensis » is just a fancy name, without description.
And, of course, you don't have a field number.
Do you think your plant matches the description of Pilosocereus pachycladus ?

Thank you both for your thoughts on this. In learning that flower color variability in Leucocephalus includes white and yellow, and the cephalium wool is clearly differentiated (somewhat weakly for Leucocephalus) from the rest of the stem, I would be tempted to lean a little more toward Leucocephalus (Palmeri). Llifle and Cactiguide list several types of Pachycladus - Pachycladus var Pachycladus, Pachycladus Azureus (usually 6 ribs) and Pachycladus Pernambuccoensis. Though most have no cephalium, a few Pachycladus images on there do. It was also helpful to read on this thread how it is that nursery specimens don't always resemble their wild habitat counterpart descriptions. No field collection numbers, I bought these from a giant box store chain supplied by Altman or Costa Farms. Hoping to correctly describe and label these for buyers, and I'm not even sure what the maximum height and shape will be in ten years. Since beginning this journey I have become a big fan of field numbers and provenance. I might be doomed to use a DNA test kit. Here is a final photo I took today of the largest seedlings from these parent cacti.