There is this cactus in a public garden here and my friend swears it's san pedro or something, I think he's an idiot. Any help is deeply appreciated :)
Growth habit doesn't look right for San Pedros - those are too bumpy. Sorry I can't help for what it actually is, though. Probably a relative. I'm willing to be that Cereusly Steve knows, and he'll be along eventually. Here is a pic of some real San Pedro for comparison - it's much smoother than the one you're showing, and the growth habit is less nodular.
Can't comment if the ident is right or not (I'm not familiar with the species), but could 'bumpiness' vary? Just wondering if the greater seasonality in California compared to Ecuador might increase the bumpiness??
Uh, perhaps, but we have a pretty severe rainy season, and that affects the speed of the growth (the "bumps") in basically the same way that it would in CA. What I'm more referring to is the nodes where the needles would be. This does not vary much between plants, and San Pedro, being nearly needle-free, is almost smooth on the ridges.
