Common Names
aka Hedgehog cactus, Mojave ground cactus. see also Strawberry Hedgehog cactus. 6 species of Echinocereus in AZ. some very rare.
Habitat
soils in grasslands, shrublands, pinyon/juniper, or aspen communities. The plants often grow against a rocky outcrop or within the rocky outcrop. Plants occur from three thousand and twenty to seven thousand nine hundred and fifty feet in elevation.
Flowers
Flowers are scarlet red (perianth is orange to dull scarlet), with many petals, and are cup-shaped. The flowers are one to two inches long and grow below the stem's apex. The flowers stay open at night, unlike many other species of cacti whose flowers close in the evening. The flowers last three to five days.
Description
small barrel-shaped cactus. Few to several hundred stems in a compact hemispheric clump or mound. The stems are mainly cylindrical, up to one foot long and one to two and one-half inches thick
Sources
DesertUSA.com