Echinopsis terscheckii

Cardón Grande · Argentine Saguaro · Cardón del Valle

Andean

Massive columnar cactus of the northwestern Argentine Andes, reaching 10 m or more — one of the largest cacti outside Mexico. Contains mescaline at low concentrations alongside other phenethylamines. Less culturally prominent than San Pedro but used in some Andean curandero traditions.

ECOLOGY & HABITAT

Slopes and dry valleys of the northwestern Argentine Andes at 1,000–3,000 m elevation.

Distribution

Northwestern ArgentinaSouthern Bolivia

TRADITIONAL USE

Andean curanderismo (less prominent than Echinopsis pachanoi)

REFERENCES

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Trout 2005

Kin & neighbors

Fast-growing columnar cactus native to the Andes containing mescaline. Central to traditional Andean shamanism for thousands of years.

Tall, blue-green columnar cactus closely related to San Pedro and often substantially more potent — one of the major mescaline-bearing cacti of the central Andes.

Anadenanthera colubrina

Cebil

South American tree whose seeds have been prepared into psychoactive snuff (vilca) and brews for at least three thousand years. Closely related to yopo but distributed further south, across the central Andes and the Gran Chaco.

Andean shrub whose chewed leaves provide one of the world's most enduring stimulant traditions — sustaining high-altitude work, ritual, and medicine for at least 8000 years before its alkaloid cocaine was isolated and globally misused.

Cocaine

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