Scarlet Hedgehog Cactus
Echinocereus coccineus
plant forms small mounds that consist of a around 30 stem clumps and can reach a diameter of up to about 3’ or more. The light green plant body is egg-shaped to cylindrical and reaches heights of up to almost a foot and a half tall. This species blooms in late spring to early summer. The flowers are usually red, yellow, pink, purple or white. The broad, funnel-shaped, orange-red flowers appear below the shoot tip and are sometimes dioecious. The spherical fruits that follow turn red and have shedding thorns.
Distinguished from E. triglochidiatus by having terete spines, while the former has angled or flattened spines.
Grow in full sun to bright shade. Plants in filtered or morning sun look the best. Provide excellent drainage. Low water needed though watering plants that are in the ground 2-3 times a month in summer keeps them looking their best. Container plants water 1-2 times a week in summer. Water once or twice a month in winter in containers, and maybe once or twice the whole winter for plants in the ground. Hardy to about 20°F though some populations are hardy to far colder temperatures, even well-below zero °F.
Photo by Max Licher, SEINET
Echinocereus coccineus on iNaturalist
Although it is favored by hummingbirds for pollination, its flowers are not specialized for hummingbird pollination, and it is pollinated by bees as well.
Fruits and flowers are edible. The fruit is used medicinally as a heart stimulant.
The genus, Echinocereus, is from the Greek echinos, hedgehog or spine and cereus, which means candle. The species name, coccineus, means scarlet or deep red. There are 89 species of Echinocereus native to the southern United States and Mexico in very sunny, rocky places.
There are several varieties:
-subspecies coccineus is from Colorado to New Mexico
-subspecies paucispinus is from west Texas and adjacent Mexico
-subspecies roemeri is from Texas
-subspecies rosei is widespread from South Central United States to northeastern Mexico
-subspecies transpecosensis is also widespread from South Central United States to northeastern Mexico
This species is found on rocky slopes, often on ledges and in canyons, often on igneous rocks from 3,500-9,000’ in the southern United States— Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas, as well as south through the Sonoran Desert to the Mexican states of Coahuila and Chihuahua.
This nice specimen is in Cañon, Colorado, photo by hemipristis, iNaturalist
The fruit is ripe and being enjoyed by many birds and other animals. This is also a subspecies, paucispinus, from Texas which has less spines. Photo by Michelle W., iNaturalist