Horse crippler (Echinocactus texensis)
Description
Echinocactus texensis is a stout barrel cactus, solitary when young and very rarely slowly clustering in age. The stem is pale grey-green to grass green with numerous ribs, above-ground portion, flat-topped, hemispheric in old age but usually deep-seated, flush with soil surface, up to 8 inches (20 cm) tall and up to 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter. Spines are small but strong, pale tan, pink or reddish to grey. Flowers are up to 2.4 inches (6 cm) long and in diameter, range from white thru rose-pink to pale silvery-pink, with red throats in late spring and can appear on plants around 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter. The Fruits are scarlet or crimson, spheric to ovoid, fleshy, p to 2 inches (5 cm) long and up to 1.6 inches (4 cm) in diameter. Echinocactus is a genus of cacti in the subfamily Cactoideae. The generic name derives from the Ancient Greek (echinos), meaning "spiny," and cactus. It and Ferocactus are the two genera of barrel cactus. Members of the genus usually have heavy spination and relatively small flowers. The fruits are copiously woolly, and this is one major distinction between Echinocactus and Ferocactus. Propagation is by seed. Perhaps the best known species is the golden barrel (Echinocactus grusonii) from Mexico, an easy-to-grow and widely cultivated plant. Though common in the houseplant and landscape industry, the golden barrel has become very rare in habitat.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Caryophyllales
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Family: Cactaceae
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Genus: Echinocactus
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