Are Browningia hertlingiana and Browningia viridis separate species?

If you have a cactus plant and need help identifying it, this is the place to post it.
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TheORKINMan
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:17 pm
Location: Florida

Are Browningia hertlingiana and Browningia viridis separate species?

Post by TheORKINMan »

So I got a pack of seeds of B. viridis from CactusStore.com and had a pretty high germination rate. CactiGuide lists B. viridis as extremely rare while B. hertlingiana is common worldwide. I just got them because the name sounded cool but I've got about 15 seedlings now. Doing some googling on this it looks like many places list B. viridis as a subspecies/cultivar of B. hertlingiana although Cactiguide has them listed as separate species. Is that the case or were they split off from each other at some point? The seedlings are still too young to likely be able to differentiate.

Basically I'm wondering if these are actually rare cacti that I should put the effort into raising all 15 of them to spread around to others etc... or if its a common variety where I'll likely just keep the fastest growing/healthiest seedlings.
Download
Posts: 251
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2021 5:22 am
Location: Adelaide, Australia

Re: Are Browningia hertlingiana and Browningia viridis separate species?

Post by Download »

Both Cactiguide and Llifle list them as a separate species.

Edit: CITES and Tropicos list them as separate.
TheORKINMan
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:17 pm
Location: Florida

Re: Are Browningia hertlingiana and Browningia viridis separate species?

Post by TheORKINMan »

Thanks! Appreciate you looking at that for me. Here’s hoping I can keep them alive! They’re only about a centimeter tall 😂
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