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  Echinocereus subinermis
(Syn: Echinocereus luteus )
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NURSERY

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Echinocereus subinermis

This species is easy to recognize, it has a dark bluish-green body
with small spines and the flowers are large yellow with green stigmas.
 

Description: At first simple or slowly clumping. This species is the least armed of the genus.
Stem: When young pale green, afterwards bluish green and finally darker green and more or les purplish, 10-20 cm tall, 7 to 9 cm in diameter.
Ribs: 5-11 with narrow furrows between them, broad somewhat sinuate, rounded.
Areoles: Small, slightly woolly, 10-12 mm apart.
Central spines: Usually absent or (sometime 1 to 4) up to 2 cm long, porrect.
Spines:  Younger plants have short spines while older ones are almost spineless.
Radial spines: 0 to 10 (usually 3 to 8), widely spreading, small, unequal, conic, yellowish, or creamishi with a darker tip, deciduous, 1 to 8 mm long (or more).
Flowers:
Large and showy up to 10-12 cm in diameter near the stem tips and from second to third areoles on the ribs, perianth segments oblanceolate, acute, cream to bright-yellow delicately sweet-scented, often with some reddish midstripes. Stigma with 10-12 green lobes. Filaments light yellow. Spines of areoles on ovary and flower-tube short, white to brown with scarce white wool..
Blooming season: Spring and summer. The individual flowers will last up to
six days. Blooming generally begins 4 to 5  years after sowing, as the plant matures.
Fruit: Obovoid, spiny, grey-green with white pulp, deciduous by a longitudinal slit.
 

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Family: Cactaceae (Cactus Family)

Scientific name:  Echinocereus subinermis Salm-Dyck ex Scheer
in Seeman, Bot. HM HS Herald, p. 291, 1856
 
Origin: Northern Mexico (southern Sonora, western Chihuahua, northern Sinaloa)

Habitat:  It grows in tropical deciduous oak forests.

Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.

Synonyms:

  • Echinocereus luteus Br. et R.,
    Contrib. US Nat. Herb., 16 : 239, 1913
  • Echinocereus subinermis var. luteus (Br. et R.) Backeb.,
    Die Cactaceae, 4 : 1973, 1960
  • Echinocereus subinermis var. aculeatus (Br. et R.) G.Unger,
    Kakt. und and. Sukk., 35 : 162-165, 1984

Two subspecies are recognized:

  • Subsp. subinermis with usually solitary stems (or with very few branches) often spineless with 5-9 ribs. the floral tube is only slightly woolly (from northern Sinaloa, southern Sonora, south-western Chihuahua)
  • Subsp. ochteraneae With branched stems, always spiny with 8 to 11 ribs. the flower tube is noticeably woolly (From northern Sinaloa).
  • The previous Echinocereus luteus, from Sonora and Sinaloa, now included in E. subinermis, is generally solitary, has 8 or 9 ribs, no central spine, 6 to 8 radials, up to 8 mm long.

 

 



Buds are spiny with a very few wool.




 

Cultivation:  This cactus is cultivated and highly priced for its flowers.   It is among the easiest species to grow, flower and propagate.  Water regularly from March to October.  Rot prone in winter, it needs good drainage.  It can not tolerate much frost and does not like full harsh sun either. as it seems to have a delicate skin and few spines so gave it a protected position in the partial-shade or under filtered sun. Frost Tolerance: Hardy to -2°  C.
Propagation:
Seeds (usually), it also can be grown from cuttings, as it can branch from the base.

 

Photo gallery: Alphabetical listing of Cactus and Succulent pictures published in this site.

Photo gallery Echinocereus

Home | E-mail | Plant files | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search

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.