Cereus, Trichocereus. The tale of 007
One lucky day your pal SanPedroPrints was on eBay searching for cacti that he definitely did not need. But then, what's this, no seriously what the actual fuck are you?
Well it turns out no one really knows. I imagine some day in the nearing future we'll be able to get some genomic testing done (yes the lab has ghosted me I am not shocked). In the meantime, we can speculate.
(from Gene of Gene's Greens, but it may be TotalPrick/Steve's picture)
Many comrades in the trichocereus community, especially more knowledgeable ones, see this and think it's a Browningia, or some other non-tricho. Especially Broningia hertlingiana. This is was what u/Crack_tus had to say before he saw the flowers:
"OK. If there was a gun to my head I’d still say it looks more like a Browningia, but I guess I want to see what others have to say. I guess I just don’t see a lot of San Pedro or even trichocereus with arms branching out like that from the sides instead of pupping."
A very fair point, and again he hadn't seen the flowers.
That said, we have some pretty clear evidence it is indeed in the tricho/echinopsis family. Chiefly, the flower:
Thanks to Total Prick Nursery's FB I was able to get these pics of it flowering:
Source and Credit of pictures:
https://www.facebook.com/totalpricknursery/
it looks like the shop is closed now and he has left this link to his instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/steve_whitright
So with that, and comparing it to a Brownie
Source: https://www.ebay.com/usr/exotic_cactus_collection
we can see the clear difference.
So who is 007? I don't know, but here's the lore I have been able to compile so far:
"Stand removed from the property of a gentleman named 'James Bond'. A peculiar specimen that slightly differs* from others in the peru/cuz/puq/knuth/etc grouping.
* the Areoles on this one have up to 20+ spines (ritter/borg/ressler put a max of 12-16 for other intermediaries) all of which stay needle thin even the central ones, no swollen bases, no bird's eye apex cross/“+”, radial and centrals bend etc etc."
"'007' i think it is (his little over-the-top/forced house number fucking kills me)! so i guess -> tricho spp. double oh seven (taxonomic clarity is hard enough and too many little things differ from peru/cuz/puq to include them in the name... def some spectrum/range shit goin on... perupuqcuzcouiensisoidish!) anywhhooo dm for trades/whateve4 or i'll try to throw some cuts on the auction page + our totalpricknursery site next week"
"nobody knows at this point. common consensus is it deviates too much from peru/cuzco/puquiensis etc to make the call. it has up to 25-30 spines per areole for example. a weirdo"
I believe these quotes are all from Steve of Total Prick, but they were passed to me by Gene of https://www.genesgreensandaquatics.com/ check them out they're fantastic.
From the famed and much respected (especially on this site!) Cactusjerk or https://trichocereus.net
"Imo it belongs to the wider context of Trichocereus knuthianus. Lots of variability in this group of plants. But better photos over the course of a few years are necessary to verify."
(I don't think he's seen the flowers yet so I'll tag him in the reddit post for his input)
Lastly in this compilation/appreciation post, check out these pups:
These are from u/temporaryhumanoid92 on reddit.
All in all, a very cool plant.