T. pallarensis is an erect peruvianoid up to 12 feet or more in height; clustering freely from the base.

Epidermis is bluish-green but older columns appear more green.

Stems are 3-5 inch in diameter and have 5-8 ribs.

Areoles are variable in size and have a v-mark merged with the upper portion.

Spines are long, reddish-brown and whitish (yellow and reddish-brown when new). 

Ritter describes them as having 3-6 radial spines, usually thinner than the central, light brown in color, 15-50 mm in length.  Central spines are usually absent or else are present as a single longer, strong spine. He also noted that they sometimes had shorter spines of only a few mm, similar to pachanoi, and that, in this case, the central spines were usually absent and the areoles were smaller and more closely spaced.

2-7 spines per areole have been observed in material at the BBG but inadequate specimens have been examined to know what the actual max and min are. (3-4 per areole seems common.)

Sacred Succulents observed 3-5 radial spines and one or two 1.5-2.5 inch long centrals in the material that they examined.

Ritter did not include any floral characteristics

Nocturnal flowers are scented and borne near apex.

Observed flowering at the BBG in late summer or early fall.

Fruit was ripe in October-November.

The fruit are wooly with persistent floral remnants.

“oblong green fruit with black hairs” [Sacred Succulents]

Fruit at the BBG showed persistent long black hairs with frizzy brown and white wool. Ritter noted there was ample wool; darker grey than on T. pachanoi.

Seeds were said by RITTER to show no difference from those of pachanoi.

Occurring around 2500-3000m in elevation in the wild.

Collected from Llacanora, near Catamarca, in Pallar and east of the Cordillera Blanca, Department Ancash, Peru.

Description was based on
Friedrich Ritter 1981 Kakteen in Sudämerika 4: 1325 (See translation)
Examination of photographs taken at the UC BBG by Jon Hanna  and by Kamm
And also on the entry in Sacred Succulents’ 1999 “Seed supplement 1”

Ritter 1981 assigned it the field collection number FR 676

Published photographs: Figure 1187 in Ritter 1981

Trichocereus pallarensis photo page

Ritter also collected what he believed to be a form of Trichocereus pallarensis at Machac.
He designated it FR 1468 (Ritter 1981: page 1648) but he does not appear to have discussed it further and we have not yet encountered it in cultivation.

(This species is sometimes encountered spelled T. pallerensis)

Known adult specimens:
It is represented in the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens as T. pallarensis South America 61.0850 (grown from seeds of F. Ritter’s FR 676; obtained from H. Winter, Germany in 1961. There appears to be two somewhat variable plants, in different beds, bearing this name at the UC BBG.)

Cultivation  comments