Pronounciation: E-ki-no-SEER-e-us en-gel-MAN-nee-i

Hardiness zones
Sunset 10-24
USDA 8 (with cold protection), 9-11 (in semi arid and arid regions only)

Landscape Use: Accent cactus for desert gardens, desert landscapes, container culture.

Form & Character: Compact, arid, well-armed, dangerous, yet diminuative and delicate.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, succulent perennial, slow growing, highly variable, clumping and spreading commonly 3 to 60 branched, loosely aggregated basal stems.

Foliage/Texture: Stems medium to dark green stem, up to 20-inches long and 2- to 3-inches wide. Aeroles with spines, 15 to 20 per areole, straight, curved or twisted, individual spines with broad zones of different colors ranging from whitish or grayish, dull golden-yellow, or reddish brown to nearly black, stems often obscured by spines; very coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Simply amazing large, unisexual magenta flowers to 3 inches wide. Bright green stigma stands out against the scarlet petals, anthers yellows. Fruits are red or orangish, 1- to 2-inches long, pulp whitish becoming infused with pink or red from the skin.

Seasonal Color: Spring to early summer flowers, typically late April to early May in Phoenix.

Temperature: Heat loving and cold hardy to 15^oF.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Needs a chunky, rocky, porous, alkaline and well-drained soil with no organic matter.

Watering: Generally little to no supplemental water is necessary.

Pruning: None

Propagation: Division of stem clumps, seed.

Disease and Pests: Root rot can be expected if one tries to grow this wonderful little cactus in soil that is either poorly drained or rich in organic matter.

Additional comments: This is an outstanding small, basally-clumping cactus for formal and informal desert gardens. Spine color polymorphism provides the basis for varietial designation. As such there are up to eight naturally-occurring varieties of Echinocereus engelmannii from the southwestern United States and Mexico that range in status from secure to critically impaired.