Stats

Lifespan

Perennial

Size

Small

Diet

Photosynthetic

Biome

Desert

Range

North America

Movement

Sessile

Breeding

Seeds

Defense

Spines

Status

Common

About

Also called the strawberry hedgehog cactus for its sweet, spiny-skinned fruit, this Sonoran and Mojave Desert native grows in dense clumps of ribbed, cylindrical stems bristling with pink-tinged spines. Each spring it bursts into large magenta blooms that open only in sunlight and close again at night.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   seed

   A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2. 2.
   sprout

   A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3. 3.
   sapling

   A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4. 4.
   mature

   Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Plantae

Phylum

Tracheophyta

Class

Magnoliopsida

Order

Caryophyllales

Family

Cactaceae

Genus

Echinocereus

Species

Echinocereus engelmannii