Ferocactus uncinatus

Ferocactus uncinatus is a species of Ferocactus found in Mexico and United States in Texas.

Description

Ferocactus uncinatus typically grows alone, with bluish-green, spherical to cylindrical shoots ranging from in height and in diameter. It has about 13 wavy ribs with pronounced tubercles, and sharp furrows between the ridges. The one to five central spines are hook-shaped, yellow with a reddish tip, and long, pointing upwards or obliquely outwards. There are seven to ten radial spines, long, with the upper ones flat and brightly colored, and the lower ones hook-shaped and somewhat purple.
Its funnel-shaped flowers, reddish-brown in color, emerge from the furrows of the areoles. They are long and have a diameter of.

Distribution

Ferocactus uncinatus is found in southern Texas and in the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas growing in scrub and limestone or calcareous soils at elevations of 900 to 1550 meters.

Taxonomy

The species was first described as Echinocactus uncinatus by Ludwig Georg Karl Pfeiffer in 1848. The specific epithet "uncinatus" comes from Latin, meaning "hooked," referring to the hook-shaped central thorns of the species. Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose moved the species to the genus Ferocactus in 1922.