Cottontop Barrel
Echinocactus polycephalus
- Full sun to part shade
- Cold Hardy to 10 F
- Up to 2.5' high x 4' wide
- Cold Hardy to 10 F
- Up to 2.5' high x 4' wide
Multi-headed barrel that can get quite large, with as much as 25 heads and up to 4' wide. These plants grow so slow that it can take over 20 years to get a second head. Many plants that we salvage are over 200 years old!
Wide size range makes this a good plant for a large or small landscape, very sculptural and attractive. Smaller Cottontops can be displayed in pots.
This plant flowers in mid-summer when most cacti have long since lost their blooms. Our salvaged Cottontops flowered in the landscape from July to September and many flowered in pots. The small flowers are trapped in a cage of spines, and they emit a sweet nectary fragrance. Flowers are followed by seeds encased in the "cotton" for which this cacti is named. When the spines of this cactus get soaked by rain, they turn bright pink, adding even more interest to the landscape.
Wide size range makes this a good plant for a large or small landscape, very sculptural and attractive. Smaller Cottontops can be displayed in pots.
This plant flowers in mid-summer when most cacti have long since lost their blooms. Our salvaged Cottontops flowered in the landscape from July to September and many flowered in pots. The small flowers are trapped in a cage of spines, and they emit a sweet nectary fragrance. Flowers are followed by seeds encased in the "cotton" for which this cacti is named. When the spines of this cactus get soaked by rain, they turn bright pink, adding even more interest to the landscape.
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