The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Leucostele terscheckii is a large columnar cactus from the dry Andean foothills of Argentina and Bolivia, often grown as a striking specimen plant. Its key to success is full sun, very sparing watering, and well-draining soil.
Leucostele terscheckii, commonly known as the cardon grande cactus or Argentine saguaro, is a large cactus native to South America and popular in cultivation.
It is native to several provinces including Jujuy, Tucumán, La Rioja, San Juan, Catamarca and Salta provinces in northwestern Argentina, and is the eponymous cactus of Los Cardones National Park in Salta Province. Range continues to the western slopes of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia department of Tarija, and Ecuador. It is found growing on dry slopes and deciduous forest of the Andean foothills at altitudes of 500 to 1500 meters. Plant grows in habitats below those where Leucostele atacamensis subsp. pasacana where they hybridize in zones where the two species meet.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leucostele terscheckii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
