Hello guys,

I believe I may have stumbled upon Trichocereus Chiloensis on a hill near my house. The area around this hill is fast in development with a big mall being built right next to it as well as several houses. These cacti are in abundance on this hill and I was wondering if anyone could help me identify them and if it would be worth trying to make a tea from them.

I struggled to find any sources on the alkaloid content apart from something from Trout's notes which said:

Trichocereus chilensis (Colla) Britton & Rose
AKA buisco
Candicine (trace) Cortes et al. 1972
“no triterpenes or alkaloids” “essentially devoid of
alkaloids”

Trichocereus that are heavily spined like that are usually weak in terms of alkaloids. Bridgesii, non-PC Pachanoi, and Scopulicola are the species to focus on. Macrogonus and Peruvianus can also be good (especially individual plants which are less spiny than average). Terscheckii and related species like Validus and Werdermannianus also show a lot of promise, but they grow much slower. I don't recall hearing much talk about Chiloensis being very promising.

BUT... if you try it please let us know! I would be very interested to hear about any experiences you have with it.

Hi woolmer hows things I’m pretty sure chiloenses is for growing not for showing my best mate has a business called Trichocereus Australia he will no for sure I’ll get hold of him my friend as soon as I know you will ✌️ and 🌈

Ok thanks guys

Good freaking luck man!! Look at those spines!! You'll put your eye out!!

Good freaking luck man!! Look at those spines!! You'll put your eye out!!

Hello woolmer how are we I just had a chat with my buddy he says they are closely related to validus and terscheckii witch are both pretty active so he said his guess would be that it would be pretty similar in content if u do go for it have fun with those spines I might jump on board and do a brew as well just got to pick witch one good luck and enjoy ✌️ and 🌈

I didnt realize that Chiloensis is a Terscheckii type. It looks almost like a beefed up Cuzcoensis in the photos.

It has potential Woolmer, especially from mature plants like that. If you do try it please let us know how it goes.

Ok perfect!

I plan on harvesting some today. How should I go about handling the spines?

I thought maybe I could try pulling them off with plyers or cutting them with a knife. Seems like it would take a really long time but I'm not sure if there really is another way so if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it

So I have harvested some bits today but upon cutting out the skin I noticed there are lots of areas in the flesh manifested with these black blotches and was wondering what they are and whether I should be worried.

This cactus seems to differ quite a bit from the other "home-grown" Pachanoi's which I have. I think due to the drought these past few years, the inside was quite dry and fibre-like instead of being slimy.

I tasted a bit of the green skin and it was unfortunately not very bitter but rather had an almost sour and spicy tinge to it. Would this indicate low levels of mescaline?

I would be concerned by that. Maybe insects or some other creature ate tunnels in the flesh that are rotting now?

Why not discard that cutting? Take a new cutting from a different plant. Its not worth getting sick over.

Try some small size extraction just on green skin.

Hmm ok.

I'd rather not go back for another cutting anytime soon it was quite a pain dealing with the spines. I may do what doubledog suggested and just extract from the green skin.

It seems that this is only prevalent in the bottom cutting. The ones closer to the top appear to not be infested.

Even if there's no mescaline/alkaloids this is a beautiful cactus!
I imagine the flowers are lovely so maybe consider taking some cuttings for cultivation
if you're worried the hillside might be invaded by humans.

Bring thick cardboard and a duffle bag to transport cactus so spines don't present
too much of an issue.

Hello woolmer how did you go do you have pictures of the blotches buy any chance love to have a look at the infestation and come on u have to go through the pain to get the gain trust me if u get pricked enough it will become 2nd nature ✌️ and 🌈

Sorry got the pictures cheers