Xerophyte

Central Spines

1-4 , elongated, often 4-7 cm long, very flexible, almost glassy, otherwise similar to the radial.

Seeds

Numerous.

Description

Echinocereus conglomeratusSN|7817]]SN|7820]] is a cespitose erect, cactus, with long white pellucid spines, and a species resembling Echinocereus stramineusSN|7820]]SN|7817]], with coarser straw-like spines. These two species are erect and grow in groups.

Taxonomy

Echinocereus conglomeratusSN|7817]]SN|7820]] was reduced by Bravo-Hollis and Sanchez-Mejorada (1991a) as a variety of E. stramineus. Taylor (1985), Blum et al. (1998), and Zimmerman et al. have dismissed E. conglorneratus as perhaps not worthy of even varietal status. It is at most a race of Echinocereus stramineusSN|7820]]SN|7817]]. The key difference by which the two were separated, namely the smaller, more open flowers, smaller fruit, the higher rib number and a more southern separated distribution area, seems entirely spurious, but plants from Mexico do differ in various respects from that from the southern USA.

Flowers

6 to 7 cm long, broad and open, purplish. Perianth segments broad, 2 cm long; spines on ovary and flower long, white, more or less curved.

Spines

Glassy white to brownish, needle-like, not completely hiding the stem.

Ribs

11 to 13, slightly undulate, above very narrow, to 1 cm high, clearly indented.

Stem

Joints simple, upright, columnar, slightly tapered at the apex, base often half covered in the ground, 10 to 30 cm long and 5 cm in diamete, light green.

Radial Spines

About 9-10 sharp, the lower pair longest,1.5-2.5 cm long, spreading, becoming yellow after the disappearance of wool felt at the base.

Fruits

Globular, 3 cm in diameter, somewhat acid, edible.

Areoles

Small, circular 8 to 15 mm apart about 2 mm in diameter, at first snow-white felted, but quickly naked.