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How do I find a good cacti vendor, and how do I know they send the right cacti?
Q: Hello sage,

I know this might not fall under any usual category of questions you receive, but I really need your advice on something.
A while ago, I asked you a question regarding the dissimilarity between T. Peruvianus and T. Pachanoi. Well, I was obviously completely mistaken (what can I say, I need glasses...heh). In any case, I was about to order T. Peruvianus from a supplier, but as you said the 2 Trichocereus species ressemble each other very closely...and a supplier could easely dupe me by sending the Pachanoi instead of the Peruvianus. I know I may be a little too paranoid(!!), but I really need your input on this one; I was thinking about these following companies: Basement Shaman (basementshaman.com), and Ethnobotanical Gardens (from herbal-shaman.com).
Do you know wether these companies are reliable or not(that is concerning the cactii)? And if not, do you know some that are reliable?

thanks again, sage.


A: We don't really have the information necessary to be able to recommend an ethnobotanical company, but I would expect that you would have no problems with either of the ones you name. If you're interested, we have a list of ethnobotanical vendors at :



http://www.erowid.org/vendors/



It shouldn't be too difficult to tell T. pachanoi and T. peruvianus apart. We've just added a large new collection of cacti images at :



http://www.erowid.org/plants/cacti/cacti_images.shtml



Specifically, T. pachanoi have _very_ short, almost non-existent spines (generally between 1/8" and 1/4" long). T. peruvianus has spines which are between 1/4 " at the shortest and 1 1/2 " long. If you look at the photos, you'll see that it's quite easy to distinguish this difference.



Hope this helps.



peace,

fire


Asked By : traveler
Answered By : fire
Published Date : 1 / 24 / 2000
Last Edited Date : 1 / 24 / 2000
Question ID : 104

Categories: [ Cacti ]



Ask Erowid v1.7 - Jul, 2005

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