July 27, 2014 was a cool overcast day in Melbourne Australia. On this day, Shaman Australis board member Sam Frankel, better known as ‘ferret’, would change the Trichocereus collecting world forever.
Posted under the title ‘seed grown weirdo,’ . Sown in an area with 'Los Banos X pallarensis’, ‘SS02 X [Juul's X peruv]’, 'Los Gentiles' and ‘ss01 x ss02’ this absolute stunner stood out, and the people noticed.
Honoring the 4 year anniversary of the death of a fellow board member, Chemical Shaman aka Denis Shaw, who was lost to the SAB community in 2010, Ferret coined the name of this clone in a giveaway on September 8th 2014, and it has since and will forever be known as Chemical Shaman’s Dick.
Easily among the most sought-after bridgesii clones for its unique look and history. The clone can look different depending on growing conditions and whether or not it is grafted. Grafting sometimes works against the natural slow growth and can result in a less lumpy crown, though this can revert from time or by degrafting.
The wild looking, slow growing beauty immediately caught eyes with its stunted, wrinkly almost lophophora-like crown, tapering down slightly to a smooth fat base. Lower areola on the smoothe base showed medium size spines.
So, what’s the full story? Here’s what I was able to put together from ferret’s posts on the SAB:
[full timeline at the bottom]
Working backward, the announcement post here on September 8th 2014 is where the name is coined:
"Good morning folks, I have 2 rooted pups up for grabs of this new clone, Trichocereus 'Chemical Shamans Dick' more pics can be found in this thread http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39354 They will be given away through a couple of competitions of sorts."
-ferret
Going to that post linked, brings you to a July 27 2014 post, with an interesting comment on its taxonomic origins
“its a weird one hey, slow growing even on graft because keeps putting out pups. I forgot to mention that bridgesii seed was also amongst the mixed up seedlings. growth on graft is quite different to what you see here, not so interesting, will get a pic today.”
- ferret
In the final update by ferret to this post, we are greeted with the official origin of the seeds
“okay i have dug through the archives and it looks like it came up in a batch of bridgesii seed courtesy via nooker beeker wonder if i can make it grow tubercles”
-ferret
So we now know who the seeds came from, another SAB member beeker, and that they were bridgesiis
Obviously from the announcement pictures, this fella had been around for a bit before being coined, so it has to date back to well before 2014, even with Australia's ideal tricho weather.
Digging through ferret’s post history, an earlier reference to this plant can be seen
December 12, 2011, with a post titled “my seedling grafts a few years on” we see the images of the grafted and degrafted CSDs used in the later, more famous, posts. This pushes our timeline back a bit, so we dig deeper.
Since we know the original CSD was grafted, and that it was a bridgesii, it helped narrow down the posts to look at in ferret's history. We go back a bit further and we have a post from January 7th 2008 in a grafting thread,
“a weird bridgesii seedling, and a few more hybrids”
Following up to a comment by a another user, ferret mentions,
“...right is a yr old bridgesii grafted a month ago, same batch as the weird one in first pic, which didnt grow more than 1 cm high all year just got fatter. the others ranged about 5-10cm”
So, this is 2008, it was started a year previously, which means we know that CSD was born in 2007.
Of all of their pictures that would fit into the timeline, this is the the only one that would likely fit:
Posted August 23rd, 2007, this is most likely the earliest photo that may well depict CSD. In my opinion, somewhere in that back left-most container. In any event, I think we can now agree on the following timeline:
~2007 CSD is born from a batch of seeds from SAB member beeker, grown by SAB member ferret
~2008 CSD is grafted
January 7th 2008- first known picture of CSD is posted, ferret is already remarking on the uniquely slow growth
September 9th 2010- Denis Shaw aka Chemical Shaman passes away
December 12 2011- first mature picture of a CSD is posted
January 25 2012- additional pictures of CSD are posted, including a familiar looking crown shot
July 27 2014- ferret posts ‘seed grown weirdo,’ the first thread dedicated exclusively to CSD
September 8th 2014- Chemical Shaman’s Dick is officially named by ferret
This was very fun to do, I have wanted to do a clone profile for a while, and I hope this helps anyone who wanted to know the story of this glorious plant like I did.
