| Cotton top cactus | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Cactaceae |
| Subfamily: | Cactoideae |
| Genus: | Homalocephala |
| Species: | H. polycephala
|
| Binomial name | |
| Homalocephala polycephala Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow[1]
| |
| Synonyms[1] | |
| |
Homalocephala polycephala, synonym Echinocactus polycephalus, is a cactus that is native to the United States and Mexico.[1] It occurs in the Mojave Desert region of Arizona, California, and Nevada, and also occurs in the Sonoran Desert region of southern California and northern Sonora, Mexico.[citation needed]
The plants grow in some of the most extreme arid environments in the American Southwest, such as Death Valley National Park, and the Mojave National Preserve of Southern California.[citation needed]
The stems of Homalocephala polycephala are sometimes solitary, but more often in clusters of as many as 30, each up to 0.6 m tall. The spines are yellow to red. The fruits are densely woolly, giving the common name cotton top cactus. The tendency of the cactus to cluster causes it to also be called many-headed barrel cactus.[2]
They have a reputation for being difficult in cultivation, and are rarely seen in cactus collections.
