Someone just posted this and I thought I'd share with the cacti porn lovers over here

I bet this had quite a couple of interesting lessons and stories

Woaah cool!! That is one tough cacti that can handle some extreme circumstances

does anyone know if the bark (actually just really stressed mature flesh) of this cacti is active???

i theorize it is, but im not sure if it can only get so potent as it becomes woody and perhaps stops its alkaloid saturation increase

i was asking myself the same question the other night, ipumaestro.

i think it still produces alkaloids because under the wooden bark it is still green and meaty

it'd be horrible to harvest from that plant- i respect its struggle too much.

that said- really old growth (corky bark) cacti has never been that strong. suprisingly weak ime

hmm interesting, thanks

What would be the approx. age of a cactus like that? Any ideas? I know so little about them. Is that a 100 year old cactus? 500?

id be impressed if it were a hundred, 500 seems unlikely

Age would be pretty difficult to determine but I would agree it is about 100 years old, the most.

dg, isnt that the reason it is put there and the reason why it survived for so long? for us to learn ...
also, harvesting with respect makes it bigger and stronger, as it happened with this ancient one too.

i can see it has 2 main trunks that are woody and some fresh grow too, so it may have been recently harvested.

unfortunately i dont know where is the location of it but if it was to take a guess i'd say its arizona.

dang!
cant believe anyone would be willing to cut that lone tortured cacti.
its life has been very hard w/o humans need to learn.
like wild harvesting peyote in this day and age

would an ethical position be to harvest a fraction of its fresh growth on a limited basis?

i just no longer believe its right to harvest sensitive materials from the wild for my selfish desires...
its not like mushrooms which are just the fruits. and its not like there is a whole field of them growing. that plants struggle to survive has been very tenuous.

(not saying i never supported wild harvest in the past- just saying i think it is awfully irresponsible and a lazy practice. they are easy to grow in captivity )

you make a good point
it seems until entheogenic vegetation threatens the balance of our ecosystems as a dominating factor the most responsible course of harvest would be cultivation for specific use

im glad you brought this perspective to light. i hope ethnobotanical companies adopt/follow this sentiment

Wow.. Amazing. That spirit is a trooper..

i hope so too. wild harvest and goats are a big issue in some areas of SA

Support local agriculture whenever possible

Welllll ... you could take an alternative approach.

One could wait until it flowers, ensure it is pollinated, collect its seeds, plant them indoors and then move them outdoors when big enough ensuring its children live on.

When you have ensured its genetics will survive and have honoured the cacti you could then harvest some of the new growth, and each time it flowers repeat the process.

You could also water / feed it as thanks and an offering before harvesting.

At least this way you are respecting the cactus and also making use of it in an honorable and ethical way.

I do something similar when harvesting wild amanita muscaria, I cut the stem rather than pulling the shroom (keeps more of below ground mycelium intact) I shake the heads to disperse the spores locally, I also when I get them home, lay the caps out for 24 hours and collect the spores, I put these spores into a small sprayer with some water, I then find some silver birch (they seem to love silver birch) where they do not grow and disperse the collected spores there.

My own way of ethical harvesting

Peace

Ahh heres proof tha pachnoi has long spines in the wild. I have one with long spines too.

Pachanoi?

Why would you assume that the plant is Pachanoi?
In the region San Pedro can mean peruvianus, pachanoi and other cacti and is not specific to any single form or species.

Pachanoi can have longer spines, but the plant above doesn't look like pachanoi...

On the old growth you could see the v horizontal notches that alot of pachanoi have. Not that other tirch's dont have it but not as pronounced as the one above. In my opinion that plant looks pachanoi. I could be wrong I dont care. Especially when one thinks they are just variations of the same species or a natural hybris. So, who cares?

Im pretty confident that is actually bridgessi, not only does it have really long spines, but it looks exactly like bridgesii and panchanoi produces more spines per areole and they are shoter.

That is an amazing picture though wow!