Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus?

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

C. Repandus?

Anyone grown it to fruiting height? Is it really edible? Is it this plant?

The story if you're interested is... I live on a large sugar cane farm, I am very lucky to live in an old Queenslander on 520 acres of cane and forest.

I stumbled across this puppy one day while cycling round the cane (not long before I saw a beautiful red belly black snake and then a blac whip snake). So I remembered its location and set back off to it a little later on.

I didn't really consider how steep the bank was, but it's a 5 metre drop down to the river below. I thought I could get a cutting of it, take it home and plant it...

So I set out to find a suitable pointy stick (but I photographed it first luckily).

I poked and I prodded - notice there's two small shoots in the centre left. I managed to free one, but because it's on such a steep angle on the bank it fell down the bank and floated down the river Sad

I was much more careful with the second shoot. I knocked it off and carefully tried to lever it back up the bank. Unfortunately I was being bitten by ants protecting their nest that I was percariously crouched down on and balancing with just one foot. Unfortunately I slipped and so did the cactus. So I gave up.

But I decided that I could see if maybe that bit didn't float down the river, so i circled down to the river and spied my prize possession hanging very close to the edge of the bank. It hadn't even fallen in the river. So with some careful aiming I threw rocks at it. I dislodged it, but it gor caught up and my aim was too far off.

So I decided to forget it till I could get some help.

I went back today with my girlfriend and we began throwing more rocks at it. Though this time we were prepared. i had a net and was ready to catch it.

Still couldn't dislodge it. But now with both of us I was able to go up to the top and knock it into the river.

With my girlfriend wading waiste deep we managed to pluck the wee Cerus to safety and have since planted it.

Can you tell me what species it is? Am I correct with it being C.Repandus?

Cheers

Paul

Subject: Re: Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus? Sat May 03, 2008 1:35 pm

Definitely not C. peruvianus.
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mmm spikey...

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Possibly C. repandus?

Subject: Re: Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus? Sat May 03, 2008 2:04 pm

Dunno, never heard of it. Have you tried looking up that species on the cactaceae
site.

Can't say i'm that into Cereus sp. I find them a bit ugly, that's just my opinion though.
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mmm spikey...

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Yeah, not hugely pretty, but still an awesome cacus...

Thanks for the link... never knew it existed!

Still very hard to find though... Need a cactus key Smile

Subject: Re: Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus? Sat May 03, 2008 2:36 pm

There is a good cactus key or two even on the net, will have look for the link later for you.
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mmm spikey...

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Hmmmm - Could this be a Trichocerus species?

Wow they're difficult to tell apart!

On another note - back to C.Repandus I understand that the fruit is edible (but maybe bland) and perhaps even the stalks are edible. It is supposedly one of the most under utilized plants (as wiki states).

Has anyone eaten this? Is it worth growing as a food?

As far as I can tell they should grow quite well up here in Cairns.

Subject: Re: Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus? Tue May 06, 2008 5:44 pm

Definitely not Trichocereus sp. notice the flattened ribs? Only Cereus sp. has these. Trichocereus sp. has much broader/fatter ribs.
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mmm spikey...

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Ahhhhh thanks Trig... I am trying to find the differences, even subtle ones, that are between the genus etc...

This is why a good cacti key would come in handy.

Subject: Re: Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus? Tue May 06, 2008 5:53 pm

Are you trying to drop me subtle hints about cacti keys? Hmmm I suspect you are. Would you like me to look for the cactus key fro you? tongue

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mmm spikey...

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Subtle? I'm about as subtle as a preganant hippopotumus at the local swimming pool.

Smile

I tried to find the keys so i wouldn't have to continually ask.. Can you ID my cactus please.... Just like in this thread:

http://forum.auscactiforum.net/cactus-identification-f16/some-ids-please-t104.htm (hint number 2)

I purposely purchased $2 worth of wooden iceblock sticks to stake into the cacti pots fully labelled... These iceblock sticks are being poorly utilised at present because of my lack of knowledge in nomenclature...

And plus I like to see people argue about what's what... I guess all I need is the genus and I can try hunt it down from there Smile

Joined : 16 Apr 2008 Posts : 20 Location : A-Town

those iceblock sticks will rot eventually. im using a few at the moment but dont think they are ideal.

i have started to get big plastic yoghurt containers and cut them up into strips. one white side to write on.

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Good idea with the yogurt containers. I had set out to buy plastic ones specially - but... they had none at the local cut price shop...

So the iceblock sticks are fine... They shouldn't rot too quickly as they're supposedly meant to be dry I guess.

Subject: Re: Cerus Repandus? or Cerus Peruvianus? Tue May 06, 2008 6:27 pm

A storm washed in about 200 plant labels in my area last winter. I am set for a while for proper plant labels. SCORE!!!

Here is one decent cactus key: http://cactiguide.com/

Will have a look for an easier one, but this was the one I was thinking of.

I have seen your ID request thread, though most of those cacti are unfamiliar to me so I didn't want to jump in, might upset Lachy, just joking Lachy, you definitely have some good knowledge to share.
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mmm spikey...

Age : 35 Joined : 26 Apr 2008 Posts : 181 Location : Cairns

Thanks trig.... and a pre-emptive thanks to Lachy Smile