Common Name: pinkflower hedgehog cactus

Duration: Perennial

Protected Status: Salvage restriced status in Arizona.

General: Often solitary or few stems in loose clumps of 1-5 with stems erect to slightly decumbent and flabby, ovoid to cylindric in age, larger than E. fendleri var. fendleri with stems 10-17.5 cm tall with 8-11 ribs that have uninterrupted crests or undulate, the areoles 15-17 mm apart the larger stems green, with spines not obliterating stem surface.

Spines: Usually 4-12 per areole and straight, with radial spines spreading and white with dark stripe on underside, often with spines of different colors, the radial spines 4-10 per areole around 1 cm long, with a central spine 1-4 cm long and stout, the rigid spines stand at right angles to the stem with a central spine at first very dark but in age changing to gray or pale gray tipped with brown or black, flat to sharply angled.

Flowers: Darker to purplish maroon with magenta inner tepals, the flowers 5-11 cm diameter and high, flower tube 10-15 mm by 10-30 mm, flower tips thin and delicate, anthers yellow.

Fruits: Fleshy and green turning to bright red to dull carmine or purplish maroon, often orangeish, 20-30 mm, the pulp magenta or red.

Ecology: Found in sandy or gravelly soils in grasslands or woodlands from 1,000-7,000 ft (305-2134 m), flowers April-June, fruiting June-August.

Distribution: s AZ, s NM, s TX; south to n MEX.

Notes: This subsp. forms the primary form found in southeastern Arizona but its difficult to find specific differences with other varieties. The geography is indicative, and clumps often only number 1-5 with stems 8-25 cm long and spines 1-2.5 cm long.

Ethnobotany: No specific use of the species or variety is recorded, however the fruits of the genus were used as food.

Etymology: Echinocereus is from the Greek echinos, hedgehog or spine and cereus, waxy, fendleri is named for Augustus Fendler (1813-1883) a German botanical collector in North and Central America, while rectispinus means bearing erect or ascending spines.

Synonyms: Echinocereus fendleri var. rectispinus

Editor: LCrumbacher 2010, FSCoburn 2015