Espiritu Cabra means Goat Spirit. It is a hybrid between three species of trichocereus, Scopulicola, bridgesii and Pachanoi. Specifically Mark Albert’s Scopulicola #10, SS02, and a pachanoi from the Berkely Botanical Gardens of unknown orgins, but probably collected in Peru. This cross was made by the late Mark Albert and Will Tomlinson of Oakland Cactus Company around 2018/2019 I think. It is a cross that throws a lot of diverse morphology, Lumpy Space Princes from @symphony-Gardens (instagram) being one and possibly Gordita. I’m keeping my eye on a few others here that look very promising.

This cactus is fairly flat sided, which it probably got mostly from SS02. It is much fatter than a bridgesii though, probably like a smallish diameter pachanoi. The spines are larger than a typical Pachanoi, but not too much.. As of writing this, I’ve never seen Espiritu Cabra throw any long spines. I would call the color dark green and it develops a beautiful dark blue bloom. It has prominent chevroning. A chevron is a v shaped pattern, named after the horns of a goat (Che’vre in French), thus the name. Chevrons are a common design element, think of the logo of the oil company. One spring day I hit my head on a chunky Juul’s Giant and had to sit in the yard for hours recovering. Everything was flushing out with new green growth. I noticed this cactus across the yard and was fairly visually fixated on it’s chunky form and vivid chevrons. Shortly after, I potted it up, then ended up planting it outside where it seems very happy so far. It has grown mostly 5 ribbed columns, with a percentage of 6 sided. It commonly grows what many in the trichocereus community seem to call cactussy, but which I call vagetative growth, the vagina-like wrinkles or folds that sometimes grow between ribs. I probably don’t have a cactus here that does it more. It looks really cool and who doesn’t want to see more things shaped like vaginas?

I’m into this cactus. I am always showing it to people trying to get them to see how cool it looks. It delivers the goods. Blocky-ish, vividly dark blue-ish, vagy and decorated with chevrons. I’m pretty sure cactus peeps will be into it. Via con cabra.