San Pedro Cactus
The correct name of the “cactus san Pedro” is san
Pedro cactus; this is only important when you go to find the
right plant (and its seeds) at the right place. This plant can be found in very
arid and desert areas.
The botanical and scientific name of this “cactus san Pedro” is ‘Echinopsis
pachanoi’ or ‘Trichocereus pachanoi’, this plant was firstly found in the Andes
mountains zone that belongs to Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador.
The “cactus san Pedro” produces the psychedelic drug mescaline and other
dangerous alkaloids, the alkaloids of the cactus san Pedro as in any other
alkaloid plant are derivates of amino acids.
The san Pedro cactus belongs to the Kingdom Plantae, that is, the
Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups as the fungi and
several groups of algae that were removed to new kingdoms. Its division name is
Magnoliophyta; this means that the ‘division’ term is used for classification
purposes. And Magnoliophyta is the favorite name to classify the cactus san
Pedro; the category is Magnoliophyta (at the rank of division, based on the
Magnolia. The most popular descriptive name is Angiospermae (Angiosperms), with
Anthophyta (that means "flowering plants") a second choice. Being the cactus san
Pedro an angiosperm it will be useful to know what an angiosperm is. The most
used definition for angiosperm is the following: “Literally, a seed borne in a
vessel (“carpel” this term will be defined later), thus one of a group of plants
whose seeds are borne within a mature ovary (fruit)”. The definition of carpel
is: “It comes from the Greek word karpos that means fruit. One of the members of
the gynoecium, or inner floral whorl, each carpel encloses one or more ovules.
One or more carpels form a gynoecium”.
As it is name says, the cactus san Pedro is a cactus. A cactus is a type of
succulent plant that belongs to the dicotyledonous (dicotyledon: Obsolet term to
used to refer to all angiosperms other than monocotyledons) flowering plant
family Cactaceae. A key definition must be made because it is an essential
function of any cactus ‘succulent plant’. “A succulent plant or plants, are
plants that store water in their enlarged fleshy leaves, stems, and roots. The
enlargement is usually due to the greater amount of the parenchyma tissue”.
Although all plants store water, succulent plants are especially adapted to
store water for long periods. This allows them to survive in arid environments,
where they receive little competition from other plants and less herbivory.
During the day, their habitat is rather hot. However, the habitat is cooler at
night allowing the succulents to respireor breath. Often, morning dewfall helps
the plants to survive: Using long hairs, that cover a large part of their
surface, some succulents are able to absorb dew.
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