General: Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii) usually is a mound-shaped plant to about 1-1/2-feet tall and composed of several, stout, upright stems. Stems rarely solitary. The spines are long, flat, more or less straight, and dark colored with light edges. The flowers are purplish, and the fruits are spiny.

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus is a fairly common component of vegetation communities on gravelly and rocky soils along washes, rocky ridges, and upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus can be found easily at Red Rock Canyon NCA (Calico Basin, Fossil Ridge), including in plantings around the Visitor Center.

Family: Cactus (Cactaceae).

Other Names: Engelmann's Hedgehog Cactus, mound cactus.

Plant Form: Several short, thick, upright stems forming a clump or mound.

Height: Usually less than 1.5-feet tall, to about 2 feet tall and 3 feet diameter.

Trunk: None.

Stems: Entire, cylindrical; 1-1/2 to 3-1/2 inches in diameter.

Stem Surface: Ribbed, without tubercles.

Spines: Central: 2-7, about 3-inches long, spreading, usually more or less straight, flat; usually reddish-brown with white margin; radial spines 6-14.

Glochids: Absent.

Flowers: Blooms late spring to early summer. Inflorescence: Solitary flower that emerge from the side of the stem near the top. Flower: funnel-shaped, reddish-purple to magenta, 2 to 3-inches diameter; anthers yellow.

Fruit: Fleshy, cylindrical, about 2-inches long and 1/2-inch wide, reddish; well defended with many spines.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes into the mountains.

Distribution: Southern California to Utah, and south through Arizona and into Mexico.

Elevation: To about 8,000 feet.

Comments:

In Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus, the flowers and fruits grow from the side of the stem.

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus with two flowers.

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus flower. Notice the green, fringed stigma.

Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus flowers.

Immature fruit (yellow arrow) on the side of the stem.

Dried Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus fruits.

Despite the many spines, small mammals are able to get at the seeds inside dried Strawberry Hedgehog Cactus fruits.