Fast growing column cacti ?

Despite massive public objection and all expert advice to the contrary the Federal Government appears intent on criminalizing the possession of certain cacti species, including well-known column cacti. States which currently see no issue with cacti possession will be required to follow suit.

So to my question. What suitable replacement fast-growing column cacti are there which *won't* be targetted by Big Brother or nosy neighbours wanting to dob you in? Ideally these alternate species, or their seed, should be locally available as importing plant material from overseas is simply not worth the hassle. Thanks.

Hey I will list a few for you.

My personal favourite; Isolatocereus Dumortieri Grows fast, gets very fat and tall !

Carnegiea gigantea, Can't get much bigger than this, however not the fastest growers in the beginning but can reach 15 metres tall.

Polaskia chichipe, an awesome plant on all accounts, grows fast and very fat.

Pachycereus (all)

Myrtillocactus (all)

Helianthocereus (However I'm not 100% on alkaloid content as they are very close relatives of Trichocereus)

Not exactly a columnar but Ferrocactus eventually grow tall and look stunning ! here is an example;

And another Ferrocactus

Last but not least a massive Carnegia Gigantea. I love this photo, gives you a true indication of the shear size of these plants.

Wow, where did you find a 12cm person?

IXOXI wrote:

Wow, where did you find a 12cm person?

Don't you mean 3 cm ?

I'm sure it's every cacti growers dream to have one of these but who has that many lifetimes...

Maybe I could graft one onto Pereskiopsis

Hellonasty wrote:

Hey I will list a few for you.

My personal favourite; Isolatocereus Dumortieri Grows fast, gets very fat and tall !

Carnegiea gigantea, Can't get much bigger than this, however not the fastest growers in the beginning but can reach 15 metres tall.

Polaskia chichipe, an awesome plant on all accounts, grows fast and very fat.

Pachycereus (all)

Myrtillocactus (all)

Helianthocereus (However I'm not 100% on alkaloid content as they are very close relatives of Trichocereus)

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check them out. I'm looking specifically for species which have similar shape/appearance to t.pach, peruvianus etc. I have pilosocereus azureus but can't find much else in the species available locally.

IXOXI wrote:

Maybe I could graft one onto Pereskiopsis

Beat you to it !! Grafted a seedling in January this year

heres my c. gigantea. no trick photography with 3cm people. about 6 years old.

Great plant Diddi, I wish mine was that big

hey thx. i remember years ago before i was really interested in cacti, a bloke proudly showed me his c.g. and i was distinctly unimpressed with this pissy little cactus that he was raving about. now mine is about half the size of that one

mine is 19cm tall and "spine tip to spine tip" about 12cm across. there are times in the season when the apical growth is a mass of almost jet black spines. looks great.

C. Gigantea is rather impressive, really nice patterns!

they are the sloooowwwest growers! but theyre nice. will post a pic when the spines are black.

@HN, I am guessing tha red spined Ferocactus must be of a decent age to be at that size?

As I understand it the number of cactus species (and genera) that could possibly be affected by this type of legislation is quite large.

Aztekium, Carnegia, Corypantha, Echinopsis, Gymnocactus, Gymnocalycium, Islaya, Lophophora, Mammillaria, Myrtillocactus, Opuntia, Pelecyphora, Pereskia, Pereskiopsis, Polaskia, Pterocereus, Stenocereus, Stetsonia, Trichocereus, Turbinicarpus apparently all contain species that could be affected. And the list can only get longer as more species are analysed.

So picking species, columnar or otherwise, that are going to keep the politicians happy could prove to be an interesting exercise.

The stupid thing is that they have been also looking at banning a number of other plants too, which possibly include the state tree, and other national symbols. And stupider on their part, most types of gum tree can be ground into sawdust, which according to the politicians and their 'scientists', is a quick easy precursor for mescaline. So are they going to ban all the Eucalypts? Why don't they go and worry about REAL crimes, not this sort of thing.

Yeah I would think 30+ years old. Not my pic Internet photo.

Charlie wrote:

As I understand it the number of cactus species (and genera) that could possibly be affected by this type of legislation is quite large.

Aztekium, Carnegia, Corypantha, Echinopsis, Gymnocactus, Gymnocalycium, Islaya, Lophophora, Mammillaria, Myrtillocactus, Opuntia, Pelecyphora, Pereskia, Pereskiopsis, Polaskia, Pterocereus, Stenocereus, Stetsonia, Trichocereus, Turbinicarpus apparently all contain species that could be affected. And the list can only get longer as more species are analysed.

So picking species, columnar or otherwise, that are going to keep the politicians happy could prove to be an interesting exercise.

Presumably State governments will remove all the offending cacti they own e.g. the T.Pachanoi specimens at the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens and bulldoze all the giant T.Pasacana located at various tourist sites around the country.

I'm afraid the Cacti societies around Australia have only themselves to blame for the situation. They have been mostly silent, leaving it to the horticulture and drug advisory bodies to inform the Federal government of the inappropriateness of banning plants which have not presented a public health issue, been part of the criminal trade or likely to be. Gardenfreedom.com did an excellence job of alerting the public and organizing a campaign, however they too have gone silent.

any solid info/links about what ''the man'' is planning? Or is it still just being spoken about?

Banning anything that contains Mescaline is what they are aiming at asfar as I understand, includes a whole heap of different cacti.
Check out www.gardenfreedom.com for some more info, though they have lately switched aim and are nto aiming to include them into a scedule but rather a regulation, totally bypassing the need for a vote in parlament.
Check this out aswell.
http://monicabarratt.net/?p=385

I for one won't give my plants up or send them to the compost heap! Last thing on my mind after nursing them for years would be to chop them up and make soup!

Last I heard on this was an announcement by a respected collector at a CSSA meeting more than a year ago that the proposed legislation was thought to be unworkable and is dead in the water. Heard nothing since...

Yeah I have heard nothing for a while now......

From what I have read over at the Corroboree it's still on and in through a back door.
http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=34179

Yes it does look as though they're still planning to do something. The links that Snowfella provided give more information.

I am opposed to this legislation. There will be so many species involved. How are people supposed to know which ones are not allowed? It will make criminals out of otherwise innocent people. I do wish that these people in Canberra could find something more useful to do with their time.

I don't know. But given the behaviour exhibited by our politicians (of both sides) I think that it is we who should be making up the rules for them, not the other way around.