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The official Trichocereus Peruvianus |
Read these warnings about sending money to
Karel Knize
From an unsolicited email dated September 12, 2008—
"I ordered plants from him in 2005 and never
received nearly the number or species that I
ordered. What little I got was entirely mislabeled,
evidently so that he could correlate the shipment
with his forged CITES document, nor did I get a
refund for the plants that I paid for and never
received. I should have learned my lesson then."
"I agree that he is a terrible businessman and I
would like to see his operation shut down. I have written this guy off and will do my best to warn
others before dealing with this crook. I think your webpage pretty much
sums up the frustration of dealing with Knize." |
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Proof that Knize is confused. He lists
his own KK242 site as "peruvianus Br&R." That
means it is the classical Trichocereus Peruvianus documented
in 1920 by famous botanists "Britton & Rose."
It cannot be the spineless thing he shows in
pictures that looks like (and is) a San Pedro! Knize is
known to make mistakes. |
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A Peruvianus? No way Knize! That
looks...just like a San Pedro! |
Hey! This looks like a San Pedro,
and Karel Knize calls it San Pedro. |
Trichocereus Peruvianus. Britton & Rose; Matucana,
Peru |
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Want to see the official "peruvianus
Br&R."?
Here it is--click for a full page image.
Notice that Briton & Rose specified where they
found it. That's right, Matucana, Peru! |
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• KK242 is not some magical plant—it is
simply the collection site in Matucana, Peru
 where
Br.&R. documented Trichocereus
Peruvianus back in 1920
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KK = Karel Knize—an unreliable old guy who sells bad seed and mislabels
his stuff |
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How mislabeled photos by Karel Knize created widespread
confusion
concerning Trichocereus Peruvianus |
Cactus collection site numbers are not a secret, they
are openly published among collectors. This shows the
precision and seriousness of cactus collectors. These folks
take vacations to visit collection sites. KK242 is simply
a geographical location in Peru.
Karel Knize is just one of many people who collect cactus.
Such collectors trade seed with other collectors. My friend
Elton Roberts, for example, has many varieties of rare
cactus from South America. He grew his collection from seed
over a 40 year period, some of that seed was from Karel
Knize. But I believe that Knize is no longer reliable. Seed
orders in recent years have taken months to arrive, seed is
so old it will not germinate, etc.
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Who were Britton and Rose?
Whenever you see Br&R. or Britton & Rose
that is
a reference to two botanists from the early 1900s.
As scientists they classified and documented a vast
number of plants. Britton & Rose recorded the Trichocereus Peruvianus
as shown in
this
museum document. There is a 1987 "Echinopsis" label at top right of
Britton & Rose's Trichocereus record. It can be ignored.
The Echinopsis controversy
I don't believe in
lumping Trichocereus into the Echinopsis category and
neither does a real expert (I'm just a grower) such as Elton Roberts. Sacred
cactus from Peru will always be Trichocereus to me because
the word, in Greek, means "hairy"—an excellent description
of the thing that precedes flower stalks. Just because
some guy in the 1980s decided to reclassify them doesn't
mean that person knew what he was doing.
Letters & numbers?
Collection numbers such as KK242, KK339, etc. are the
botanists way of identifying the wild plants they have
located. One's initials are
followed by digits that correspond to a collection sites (see
the Karel Knize example below). Each number therefore =
a collection site with a published geographical location, altitude,
etc.
Who is Karel Knize (KK)?
Karel Knize is a cactus guy in Peru (website).
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| Who were Britton & Rose? |
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(above) This page is from the Smithsonian; showing
that N. L. Britton and J. N. Rose were the authors
of
The Cactaceae, a book still available for
purchase. |
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Trichocereus Peruvianus of
Britton & Rose = KK242 = Matucana, Peru |
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| The fact that Knize identifies his KK242 site as
the classic Peruvianus of Briton & Rose is all there
is to say about this. |
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See why people say Knize is confused?
He mislabels his
photos of specimens. He shows a photo labeled KK242 that is
identical to a San Pedro! Also 2-Bridgesii where only one
looks like a Bridgesii. Maybe the website layout person made
these mistakes, who knows.
This carelessness has been noted by people who bought
cuttings and seeds only to find the seed grew into something
unlike the cuttings. In my personal experience Knize took
months to fill a seed order but only after numerous demands.
In the past 3 years he has supplied seed that had virtually
no germination and seed that had absolutely zero
germination. This year (3rd year) his Peruvianus seed sold
through European distributors exhibited about 5-8%
germination.
Knize, from my experience with him, is no longer a viable
or reliable source of anything. |
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His website: http://www.cactusknize.com/ |
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MORE KNIZE KK#'s |
