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Stunning Pink. Cereus hankeanus, Bolivian Apple Cactus, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

A candle cactus with delicate pink graces the Desert Glass House of the Hortus. 'Hankeanus' is for Thaddeus Xaverius Peregrinus Haenke (1761-1816). Haenke in 1789 took service in the Spanish scientific Malaspina Expediton (1789-1794). After leaving it, he continued working in South America. He was versatile and made an enormous collection of specimens. And perhaps most famously he's credited with discovering the Victoria amazonica. Haenke is often called the Bohemian Humboldt. He never returned to Europe and died near Cochabamba, Bolivia, either in prison or by having been accidentally poisoned by his maid.

As far as I can gather this Cereus was first scientifically described in 1897 based on the catalogue (1889) of the garden of the wealthy Bohemian industrialist Hermann Gruson (1821-1895).

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Uploaded on July 7, 2025
Taken on July 7, 2025