Habit: Generally erect to ascending, [sprawling, pendent, or decumbent], branched or not, branches generally few--500, occasionally in dense mounds.
Stem: [2]5--60[200] cm, (1)4--15 cm diam, spheric to long-cylindric, soft, not regularly segmented; ribs prominent, 4--13[26], tubercles +- 0 along rib-crests.
Spines: [0]4--55 per areole, < 2 mm diam, needle- to dagger-like, glabrous to puberulent, straight, curved, or curly; central spines (0)1--6(9).
Flower: lateral, near distal margin of spine cluster; perianth purple to lavender, orange, or red [yellow or green]; ovary glabrous, spiny, scales minute.
Fruit: spheric to obovoid, indehiscent or splitting laterally, densely spiny, spine clusters deciduous.
Seed: 0.8--2 mm, obovoid to +- spheric, dull, wrinkled or tubercled, generally black.
Species In Genus: 49 species: southwestern United States, Mexico.
Etymology: (Greek: hedgehog +
Cereus)
Jepson eFlora Author: Bruce D. Parfitt
Reference: Taylor 1985 The Genus
Echinocereus. Timber Press
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Echinocereus
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