Xerophyte

Central Spines

Usually 4, forming a cross, very much stouter, strongly angled, more or less flattened, stiff, swordlike, erect or ported, the lowest one decidedly so, sometimes 8 cm long.

Seeds

black, tuberculately roughened.

Description

Echinocereus brandegeeiSN|7505]]SN|7505]] is a variable cactus. The stems always grow in clusters, which vary from a few stems to great loose mounds more than 2 m across and less than 35 cm tall. The spines are even more variable. In some localities this fiercely armed species grows among devil's club cholla (Opuntia invictaSN|9875]]SN|9875]]), the spines tend to be the shortest and stoutest and the two species look remarkably one to to each other. This may be a case of convergent evolution. The adaptive value of this convergence, if any, is unknown.

Roots

diffuse

Tubercles

Hexagonal in shape.

Flowers

Borne from the stem tips to the bases, bight pink to purplish with deep red petal bases, broadly funnelform, about 5,5-9,5 cm long and up to 4,5-8,5 cm across; areoles on ovary and tube closely set, filled with pale acicular spines and long white wool. Outer perianth magenta or light magenta and dark magenta with reddish midstripe, inner perianth magenta or light magenta with magenta midstripe and red at base. Stigma lobe number 6-9, yellow or yellow with faint greenish tint, not green.

Spines

Extremely variable, ranging from long and thin to short and stout, and yellow, reddish, brown, black, or whitish at first often tinged with red, in age dark grey.

Ribs

8-10, indistinct, almost entirely superseded by tubercles.

Stem

Highly variable in different populations, ranging from short and erect to long and sprawling but erect at the tip. Joints, light green, greenish-grey or dull green, covered with spines, cylindrical usually much narrowed toward the base, 20-35 cm long (sometimes one meter long or more) and 4-6 (or more) cm in diameter.

Fruits

Globular, red 3 cm. in diameter, spiny.

Note

A form of Echinocereus brandegeeiSN|7505]]SN|7505]] has been sold as Mammillaria halei in recent years but the latter should be recognisable because one of the differences is that the central spines are faintly tipped brown.

Blooming Season

Echinocereus brandegeeiSN|7505]]SN|7505]] doesn’t follow the usual habit of the genus of flowering in spring. It blooms from late July into September. Flowers are seldom seen in cultivation.

Radial Spines

10-18, spreading, acicular, stiff, round, to 2 cm long.

Areoles

Circular roundish, white to greyish.