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Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-1129
Horse Crippler
Echinocactus texensis
Horse Crippler is a solitary, nearly flat-topped barrel cactus that hugs the ground, typically only an inch or two tall but spreading up to a foot across in a single dense, heavily spined stem. Large, inverted bell-shaped flowers open in the day, salmon-red on the outside and salmon-pink streaked with red inside, over a long spring-to-summer season. It grows in full sun on dry, sandy or limestone-derived ground in desert flats, grassland and scrubland, tolerating heavy drought once established. Its low, camouflaged form and stout central spines make it a hazard to bare feet and unshod livestock.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- Not yet recorded
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- Not yet recorded
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 1–6 in
- Mature spread
- 8–12 in
- Plant spacing
- 6–12 in
- Root type
- Not yet recorded
- Spread pattern
- Both
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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