Echinocereus schmollii

Echinocereus schmollii is a species of cactus native to Mexico.

Description
Echinocereus schmollii typically grows solitary with cylindrical, purple to blackish shoots up to 25 cm long and 1 cm in diameter. The roots are slightly thickened. The plant has nine to ten rounded, tuberculated ribs and up to 35 pink hair-like thorns that create a woolly appearance, which turn white or darker and can be up to 7 mm long.

The bright pink, funnel-shaped flowers appear near the tips of the shoots, measuring 3 to 5 cm long and up to 6 cm in diameter. The juicy, egg-shaped to spherical fruits are slightly purple-green.

Distribution
Echinocereus schmollii is found in the Mexican state of Querétaro growing in the Chihuahuan Desert at elevations around 1660 to 1890 m. It is found growing along with Astrophytum caput-medusae.

Taxonomy
First described as Cereus schmollii in 1931 by Wilhelm Weingart, the specific epithet honors German artist and cactus collector Ferdinand Schmoll. Nigel Paul Taylor reclassified it to the genus Echinocereus in 1985.