Common Name: CACTUS FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, generally fleshy. Stem: cylindric to spheric, or flat; surface smooth, tubercled, or ribbed (grooved); nodal areoles bearing flowers. Leaf: generally 0 or early-deciduous, flat to +- cylindric. Spines: areoles generally with central, radial spines, occasionally with glochids. Flower: generally 1 per areole, bisexual [unisexual], sessile, radial [bilateral]; perianth parts generally many [5], scale-like to petal-like; stamens many; ovary inferior [superior], style 1, stigma lobes generally several [many]. Fruit: dry to fleshy or juicy, indehiscent to variously dehiscent, spiny, scaly, or naked; tubercled or smooth. Seed: generally many, occasionally 0--few. Genera In Family: +- 125 genera, +- 1800 species: America (especially deserts), Africa; many cultivated, some edible. Note: Spines smaller, fewer (0) in shade forms; yellow spines blacken in age. Introduced species increasingly escape cultivation. Hybridization common in some genera. eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce D. Parfitt, Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: BARREL CACTUS Habit: Erect or leaning, branches 0, occasionally branched from tip-injury. Stem: (0)10--200(300) cm, 10--35 cm diam, depressed-spheric to short-columnar, hard, glabrous, not segmented; ribs 13--31, prominent; tubercles not conspicuous on ribs. Spines: [6]10--32 per areole, 2--4.5 mm wide, generally awl-shaped, generally flat, ringed with conspicuous ridges, straight to curved or +- hooked, some bristle-like; central spines generally 4 per areole. Flower: +- terminal, near distal edge of spine cluster, 3--6 cm diam; perianth yellow to red [or purple, or white with +- purple midstripes]; ovary glabrous, spines 0, scales numerous, generally rounded, margins minutely fringed or toothed. Fruit: spheric, ovoid, or cylindric, glabrous, spineless, dehiscent by basal pore. Seed: [1]1.5--3 mm, spheric to subreniform, pitted, black. Etymology: (Latin: fierce cactus) eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Reference: Taylor 1984 Bradleya 2:19--38
Ferocactus viridescens (Torr. & A. Gray) Britton & Rose
NATIVE Stem: generally not taller than wide, depressed-spheric to cylindric. Spines: 10--24, generally spreading, longest straight or +- curved, red, pink or +- yellow, +- gray or yellow in age. Flower: inner perianth occasionally with red-brown midstripes; style 6--9 mm, ovary 5--7 mm, scales fringed-dentate. Fruit: yellow (to +- red). Seed: 1.5--2 mm. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Sandy to rocky areas; Elevation: 10--150 m. Bioregional Distribution: SCo (San Diego Co.); Distribution Outside California: Baja California. Flowering Time: May--Jun Note: Threatened by urbanization, off-road vehicles, collecting. Synonyms: Ferocactus viridescens var. viridescens Jepson eFlora Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Reference: Taylor 1984 Bradleya 2:19--38 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Ferocactus cylindraceus Next taxon: Grusonia
Botanical illustration including Ferocactus viridescens
Citation for this treatment: Bruce D. Parfitt 2012, Ferocactus viridescens, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=25772, accessed on April 16, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 16, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
