Espiritu Cabra means Goat Spirit. It is a hybrid between three species of trichocereus, Scopulicola, bridgesii and Pachanoi. Mark Albert’s Scopulicola #10, SS02, and a pachanoi from the Berkely Botanical Gardens of unknown orgins, but probably collected in Peru. MA Scop #10 x (SS02 x BBG) 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 from the seed lot 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/green 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 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 that 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.