Echinopsis deserticola - (Syn: Trichocereus deserticola)

Echinopsis deserticola is a low shrubby branching Echinopsis with a columnar habit to about 1.3m but often with some growth prostrate or semi-prostrate. Endemic to northern Chile along the coast to about 1000m in elevation, it grows from around Tocopilla north of Antofagasta to south of Serena at the southernmost reach of its range, a range that transects the coastal strip of the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. Almost entirely dependent on moisture condensing from the camanchaca, the dense clouds of fog that form on the Chilean coast, Echinopsis deserticola will survive with very little water and none at all during the winter. We have found however, that once its roots are established it grows quite quickly providing it has warmth and full or partial sun and in such conditions can take regular watering through the warmest months. Watering should stop from around early to mid-October and not start again until the sunnier warmest days of early Spring, usually mid to late March.