Echinocactus polycephalus
cottontop cactus
Family CactaceaeAlso called cottontop barrel
About
Cottontop cactus is a clustering barrel cactus of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, forming mounds of up to 30 ribbed stems armed with stout reddish spines. It is now usually placed in the genus Homalocephala.
Care at a glance
- Pet safety
- Not recorded. We have no source on whether this plant is safe for cats, dogs or other pets — that is not the same as safe. Keep it out of reach until you have checked.
- People
- Not recorded.
- Mature size
- Stems 30–60 cm tall, in clusters of up to 30.
Field notes
Morphology
Stems 30–60 cm tall and 10–20 cm wide, occasionally solitary but usually in clusters of up to 30, with 13–21 ribs. Each areole has four reddish-purple central spines 6–7.5 cm long that turn grey with age, plus 6–8 similar radial spines 3–4.5 cm long. Yellow flowers about 5 cm across have a pink central stripe.
Distribution & habitat
The Mojave Desert of Arizona, California and Nevada and the Sonoran Desert of southern California and northern Sonora, Mexico, on rocky hills and slopes at 30–750 m, including some of the driest places in the Southwest such as Death Valley.
History & etymology
Described as Echinocactus polycephalus by George Engelmann and John Milton Bigelow in 1856 and moved to Homalocephala by Vargas-Luna and Bárcenas in 2018. The epithet means 'with many heads'.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- United States, Mexico
- IUCN status
- Least concern
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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