Flora of North America species comparison

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Echinocereus pectinatus

Echinocereus pseudopectinatus

Mexican comb hedgehog, rainbow cactus

devilthorn
Habit Plants unbranched (rarely few branched).
Stems

erect, short cylindric, to 20 × 4–6 cm;

ribs 13–19, crests slightly undulate;

areoles 4–8 mm apart.
Spines

13–17 per areole, stiff and straight, white, pink, or gray, becoming gray with dark tips;

radial spines 12–17 per areole, appressed to spreading, 2–12 mm;

central spines (0–)1–4 per areole, projecting, 1–4 mm.
Flowers

5–8 × 7–10 cm;

flower tube 15–25 × 8–20 mm;

flower tube hairs 3–5 mm;

inner tepals purplish pink, darker proximal portion and midstripes, 35–45 × 10–22 mm, tips relatively thin and delicate;

anthers dark yellow;

nectar chamber to 3 mm.
Fruits

dark green, brownish tinged, 15–23 mm, pulp white.

Echinocereus pectinatus

Echinocereus pseudopectinatus
Phenology Flowering times not well known; fruiting 2 months after flowering.
Habitat Chihuahuan Desert, desert scrub, mostly semidesert grasslands, rocky slopes, mostly igneous substrates
Elevation 1200-1400 m (3900-4600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; n Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; Mexico (Sonora)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Misidentifications of Echinocereus pseudopectinatus were the basis for Arizona reports of E. pectinatus and E. dasyacanthus, which belong to an unrelated species group from the Chihuahuan Desert. Formerly, E. pseudopectinatus was considered conspecific with E. bristolii W. T. Marshall, a closely related endemic species of Sonora, Mexico.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4. FNA vol. 4.
Parent taxa Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Echinocereus Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Echinocereus
Sibling taxa
E. arizonicus, E. berlandieri, E. bonkerae, E. chisosensis, E. coccineus, E. dasyacanthus, E. davisii, E. engelmannii, E. enneacanthus, E. fasciculatus, E. fendleri, E. ledingii, E. nicholii, E. papillosus, E. pentalophus, E. poselgeri, E. pseudopectinatus, E. reichenbachii, E. rigidissimus, E. stramineus, E. triglochidiatus, E. viridiflorus
E. arizonicus, E. berlandieri, E. bonkerae, E. chisosensis, E. coccineus, E. dasyacanthus, E. davisii, E. engelmannii, E. enneacanthus, E. fasciculatus, E. fendleri, E. ledingii, E. nicholii, E. papillosus, E. pectinatus, E. pentalophus, E. poselgeri, E. reichenbachii, E. rigidissimus, E. stramineus, E. triglochidiatus, E. viridiflorus
Subordinate taxa
E. pectinatus var. wenigeri
Synonyms Echinocactus pectinatus E. bristolii var. pseudopectinatus, E. scopulorum subsp. pseudopectinatus
Name authority (Scheidweiler) Engelmann: in F. A. Wislizenus, Mem. Tour N. Mexico, 109. (1848) (N. P. Taylor) N. P. Taylor: Bradleya 7: 74. (1989)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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