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Echinocereus maritimus
 

Echinocereus maritimus
It is a coastal clumper with small yellow flowers and stout spines.
 

Cultivation: This plant from Baja California needs warmer winter temperatures, and can resist only occasional light frost, above -2 C. It is sensitive to over-watering (rot prone) and needs good drainage.  Fertilize with a half-strength liquid fertilizer in summer.   Keep absolutely dry in winter.  Needs full sun;

Propagation: Seeds or cutting (if available)

Some recognize two very similar subspecies:

• The 'hancockii' subspecies (regarded by N.P. TAYLOR as only a giant form of Echinocereus maritimus) is characterized by much larger heavily-spined stems that are 5,5 to 7 cm thick. It forms smaller clumps of up to 30 heads. The color of the spines of 'hancockii' varies from light yellow to black-brown, while young spination in the apex is red in colour.

• The 'maritimus' subspecies grows in great clusters up to 300 heads at up to over 2 m wide, with small short spined stems that are 4 to 7 cm thick.

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Scientific name: Echinocereus maritimus (M.E. Jones) K. Schumann 1897

Origin:  Western Baja California and nearby islands.

Habitat: Grows in a stony soil on flat hills near the coast. Altitude about 50m.

Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.

Common Names include:

Etymology: named after Allan Hancock (fl. 1949), US- American captain of the marine laboratory ship Velero IV

Synonyms:  

• Cereus maritimus  M.E. Jones 1883
• Echinocereus hancockii Dawson  (Basionym)
  in: Desert Plant Life 21: 89, 91 (1949)
• Echinocereus maritimus ssp. hancockii (Dawson) Blum & Rutow
  In Blum et al.- ECHINOCEREUS 57, 1998
• Echinocereus maritimus var. hancockii (Dawson) Taylor
  In: The Genus Echinocereus: 44 (1985)

Description: Echinoceres maritimus  is a caespitose mounding cactus, forming colonies of spherical to cylindrical stems. In habitat they can grow up to 2 m in diameter and 40 cm tall, with as many as 300 stems! They may vary from long (usual) to short-spined. This species resemble in habit with Opuntia invicta.
Stems: Globose to cylindrical, light to dark green 5-30 cm tall, 2.5-7 cm in diameter.
Ribs: 8 to10, acute, 8-15 mm wide.
Root: Fibrose.
Central and upper spines: Stout, 4 to 10, pinkish to bright red, becoming dirty yellow or grey, spreading, stiff, straight, strongly flattened and angled, erect, 2,5-6cm long. (up to 3 mm in diameter)
Radial and lower spines: 7 to12, spreading 1,5-2,5 cm long.
Flowers: Small, arising from near the top of the plant, subterminal, infundibuliform, bright yellow, up to 6 cm long and in diameter. Ovary not very spiny.
Fruit: Globose, green, becoming red, spiny, drying up but not breaking.  Ripens in 4-8 months.
Seeds: 1,2-1,3/1 mm dark/brown black.

All the information and photos in cactus art file are now available also in the new the Enciclopedia of Cacti. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.