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: CLUSTERED BARREL CACTUS Habit: Erect, branched [or not], forming compact, +- 1 m diam mounds; branches 30--50(130). Stem: not segmented, [4]15--40[250] cm, [8]15--30[80] cm diam, flat-topped spheric to short-cylindric, hard, tip densely woolly [to glabrous]; ribs [7]11--25[60+], prominent, tubercles indistinct. Spines: (5)10--19 per areole, generally 2--5 mm diam near base, generally awl-shaped, generally flat, ringed with conspicuous ridges, straight to curved; central spines [1]4 per areole. Flower: at stem tip, near distal edge of spine cluster, 4--5 cm diam; perianth yellow tinged with pink; ovary densely long-woolly, spines 0, scaly, distal scales long-tapered, tips spine-like. Fruit: dehiscent via basal pore, ovoid, densely woolly, spineless, but distal scales spine-like at tip. Seed: 2.8--4.7 mm, spheric, or +- reniform to obovoid, shiny or dull, +- red-brown to black. Etymology: (Greek: spine + cactus) eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Reference: Chamberland 1997 Syst Bot 22:303--313
Echinocactus polycephalus Engelm. & J.M. Bigelow var. polycephalus
NATIVE Stem: generally spheric. Spines: red to gray (straw), spreading, initially canescent; radial spines 6--14, 3--4.5 cm, spreading, +- curved. Flower: +- 5 cm, inner perianth bright yellow. Fruit: scales < dried perianth. Seed: 2.8--4.7 mm, rounded or faceted, papillate-roughened, generally dull. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Rocky hills, silty valleys; Elevation: < 1400 m. Bioregional Distribution: DMoj, n DSon; Distribution Outside California: to Arizona, Mexico. Flowering Time: Mar--Aug Jepson eFlora Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Reference: Chamberland 1997 Syst Bot 22:303--313 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Echinocactus Next taxon: Echinocereus
Botanical illustration including Echinocactus polycephalus var. polycephalus
Citation for this treatment: Bruce D. Parfitt 2012, Echinocactus polycephalus var. polycephalus, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=57996, accessed on April 18, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 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).
