Echinocereus enneacanthus |
Echinocereus pectinatus |
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alicoche, Mexican strawberry pitaya, pitaya, smallspine pitaya, strawberry cactus |
Mexican comb hedgehog, rainbow cactus |
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Habit | Plants branched forming dense or lax clumps with 20–100(–500) branches, usually branching before flowering. | |||||
Stems | some-what lax often sprawling, longest stems sometimes prostrate, cylindric, 8–40(–100?) × 3.2–15 cm; ribs (6–)7–10(–12), crests essentially uninterrupted; areoles (11–)14–52 mm apart. |
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Spines | 6–14 per areole, straight or central spines slightly curved throughout their lengths, ± opaque, white, pale tan, or purplish gray, often extensively tipped or banded with brown; radial spines 5–10(–13) per areole, 9.5–40(–47) mm, usually less than 1/2 as long as central spines; central spines 1–4(–5) per areole, all or mostly projecting, abaxial spine porrect or descending, frequently compressed or angular in cross section (sometimes sulcate, keeled, or striate), (12–)20–84(–96) mm. |
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Flowers | (4.5–)5–7.5 × 5–5.6(–9) cm; flower tube 10–30 × 10–22(–40) mm; flower tube hairs 1–2 mm; inner tepals pink or magenta, darkest proximally, 28–55 × 8–14(–20) mm, tips relatively thin and delicate; anthers yellow; nectar chamber 4–6 mm. |
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Fruits | pale yellow-green or dull reddish, 20–30 mm, pulp white or pale pink. |
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2n | = 22. |
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Echinocereus enneacanthus |
Echinocereus pectinatus |
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Distribution |
TX; Mexico
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TX; n Mexico
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). The commonly recognized concept of Echinocereus enneacanthus var. enneacanthus (W. O. Moore 1967; D. Weniger 1970; L. D. Benson 1982) pertained to the small eastern var. brevispinus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (1 in the flora). At least in the United States, Echinocereus pectinatus (diploid) has only pink or purple flowers, unlike the polymorphic species E. dasyacanthus (tetraploid). Echinocereus pectinatus differs from the entire E. reichenbachii species group in that the areoles of its relatively thick-walled flower tube have stouter spines and much shorter hairs. Superficially similar species west of the Continental Divide, formerly associated with E. pectinatus (E. pseudopectinatus, E. rigidissimus, and some Sonoran species), are more closely related to the E. reichenbachii species group with densely bristly flower buds and delicate, ephemeral inner tepals. Echinocereus pectinatus var. pectinatus is endemic to Mexico; reports from the United States were misidentifications of var. wenigeri, E. pseudopectinatus (in Arizona), and unusually short-spined plants of E. dasyacanthus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 162. | FNA vol. 4. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Echinocereus | Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Echinocereus | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Echinocactus pectinatus | |||||
Name authority | Engelmann: in F. A. Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico, 111. (1848) | (Scheidweiler) Engelmann: in F. A. Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico, 109. (1848) | ||||
Web links |