Scientific: Echinocereus engelmannii
Common: Engelmann's hedgehog cactus, strawberry hedgehog cactus
Family: Cactaceae
Origin: Sonoran and Mojave deserts of Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Sonora, Baja California at elevations ranging from sea level to 8000 feet.
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 15oF.
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.