Echinopsis eyriesii (Turp.) Zucc. ex Pfeiff & Otto

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘This remarkable species […] was presented to the Horticultural Society some years since by Sir John Lubbock, who had procured it from Mexico, where the genus seems to exist in great numbers; it flowers at various seasons, and now and then forms an offset.  Independantly of the large size of its flowers, which rival in dimensions those of the Cereus tribe of Cacti, it is remarkable for the rich delicious odour they exhale at night, at which time its glorious blossoms expand.  When young they resemble long sooty-grey horns covered over with a thick shaggy hairiness, and would never be suspected to conceal a form of the utmost beauty, or a clear and delicate complexion.  When the hour of perfection has arrived, and the coarse veil of hair begins to be withdrawn by the expansion of the unfolding petals, one is amazed at the unexpected loveliness which stands revealed in the form of this vegetable star, whose rays are of the softest white, while the disk is of a rich yellow formed by the stigma and the clustering anthers.’  [BR f.1707/1834]. 

Introduced to Britain in 1829.  [JD].  The variety glaucus is also figured in the Botanical Register.  [BR f.31/1838].  BM t.3411/1835.

History at Camden Park

Listed only in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [T.405/1850].

Notes