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• Conservation Status
• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Habitat
• Similar Species
• Bibliography
• More Info
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Overview:

Threatened

Conservation Status

US Endangered Species Act: Threatened. The Uinta Basin hookless Cactus was first listed on October 11, 1979. It is currently designated as Threatened in the Entire Range. Within the area covered by this listing, this species is known to occur in: Colorado, Utah. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain-Prairie Region (Region 6) is the lead region for this entity. More info.

Taxonomy

Unambiguous Synonyms:

1. Echinocactus glaucus (J.A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) L. Benson
2. Echinocactus subglacus
3. Echinocactus whipplei glaucus
4. Pediocactus glaucus (J.A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) Arp
5. Sclerocactus franklinii
6. Sclerocactus whipplei var. glaucus (J.A. Purpus ex K. Schum.) Welsh

Notes:

Name Status: Accepted Name. Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication: Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 38:53. 1966

Name verified on 06-Dec-1993 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 05-Mar-2003

Physical Description

Family Cactaceae:

Fleshy perennials, shrubs, trees or vines, terrestrial or epiphytic. Stems jointed, terete, globose, flattened, or fluted, mostly leafless and variously spiny. Leaves alternate, flat or subulate to terete, vestigial, or entirely absent; spines, glochids (easily detached, small, bristlelike spines), and flowers always arising from cushionlike, axillary areoles (modified short shoots) . Flowers solitary, sessile, rarely clustered and stalked (in Pereskia), bisexual, rarely unisexual, actinomorphic or occasionally zygomorphic. Receptacle tube (hypanthium or perianth tube) absent or short to elongate, naked or invested with leaflike bracts, scales, areoles, and hairs, bristles, or spines; perianth segments usually numerous, in a sepaloid to petaloid series. Stamens numerous, variously inserted in throat and tube; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary (pericarpel) inferior, rarely superior, 1-loculed, with 3 to many parietal (rarely basal) placentas; ovules usually numerous; style 1; stigmas 2 to numerous, papillate, rarely 2-fid. Fruit juicy or dry, naked, scaly, hairy, bristly, or spiny, indehiscent or dehiscent, when juicy then pulp derived from often deliquescent funicles (except in Pereskia) . Seeds usually numerous, often arillate or strophiolate; embryo curved or rarely straight; endosperm present or absent; cotyledons reduced or vestigial, rarely leaflike.

About 110 genera and more than 1000 species: temperate and tropical America; Rhipsalis baccifera (J. S. Mueller) Stearn native in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarenes, and Sri Lanka; some species of other genera now extensively naturalized in the Old World through human agency; more than 60 genera and 600 species cultivated as ornamentals or hedges in China, of which four genera and seven species more or less naturalized.^[1]

Genus Sclerocactus:

Plants erect, usually unbranched, sometimes deep-seated in substrate in winter but never flat-topped. Roots diffuse. Stems unsegmented, pale to dark green or bluish green, ovoid, spheric, depressed-spheric, depressed hemispheric, cylindric, or elongate cylindric, 1-40(-45) × 1.8-15(-20) cm, occasionally glaucous; tubercles usually coalescent into ribs (rarely remaining as separate tubercles) ; ribs 10-17(-20), crests deeply notched above each areole, thus ribs tuberculate; tubercles ± prominent on ribs; areoles 8-20 mm apart, elliptic to pyriform, with fertile portion as short adaxial prolongation confluent with spine cluster or connected to spine cluster by very broad groove, woolly; areolar glands few or absent; cortex and pith highly mucilaginous. Spines 2-17(-29) ; radial spines 2-11(-18) per areole, usually white or gray, sometimes straw colored, brown, pink, purplish pink, or black, straight or curved; central spines (0-) 1-6(-11) per areole, gray, white, yellow, straw colored, red, reddish brown, brown, pink to purplish pink or black, usually of 2-3 distinct types, 1 or more hooked (rarely none hooked), acicular or subulate, or both (ribbonlike and papery in S. papyracanthus), longest spines 7-15 mm. Flowers diurnal, borne at adaxial edge of areoles at or near stem apex or in short extension of spine-bearing areoles, campanulate or funnelform, 1-6.7 × 1-6(-7) cm; outer tepals with greenish lavender, reddish brown, yellowish brown, or purple midstripes, white, cream, gold, rose, pink, or purple margins, oblanceolate, 10-45 × 3-10 mm, margins entire or fimbriate; inner tepals erect to ascending white, cream, yellow, or pink to purplish, often with dark midstripes, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 15-50 × 4-12 mm, margins entire or fimbriate; ovary scaly, spineless; stigma lobes 5-12, pink, green, yellow, or creamy white, 1.5-3.5 mm. Fruits dehiscent along 2-4 irregular, short vertical slits above base, or through basal abscission pore, green, often turning tan, pink or red, cylindric to subspheric, 4.2-30 × 3.5-21(-25) mm, thin walled, fleshy, becoming dry at maturity, naked or with few broad, thin scales; pulp greenish to white, scant; floral remnant persistent. Seeds brown or black, 1.5-3 × 1.9-4.5 mm, glossy or shiny; testa papillate (rarely furrowed). x = 11.

Species 15: w United States.

There has been considerable controversy concerning generic circumscription of Sclerocactus. Some treatments include Ancistrocactus, Echinomastus, Glandulicactus, and Sclerocactus as a single genus; whereas others exclude those groups, in addition to Toumeya, from Sclerocactus. Molecular phylogenetic studies of chloroplast DNA sequences (J. M. Porter et al. 2000; R. Nyffeler 2002) support a close relationship among Ancistrocactus, Echinomastus, Toumeya, and Sclerocactus; only Toumeya is included with Sclerocactus here. Although morphologically cohesive, Echinomastus is inferred to be a paraphyletic group, with some species (i.e., E. johnsonii) more closely related to Sclerocactus than to other members of Echinomastus. Ancistrocactus is sister to Echinomastus and Sclerocactus, providing merit to a broader circumscription of Sclerocactus. Glandulicactus and Pediocactus are only distantly related to this group, bolstering their exclusion from Sclerocactus.^[2]

Images:

Distribution

Range and Population

North America

Native: .

Habitat

Found scattered on gravely or rocky soils on hills, riverside and mesas of varying exposures on Salt-Desert/Grassland sites, occasionally on clayey plains. It is more abundant on south-facing exposures, and on slopes to about 5-30 percent grade; Elevation ranges from 1,300 to 1,600 meters.

Similar Species

Members of the genus Sclerocactus:

There are approximately 68 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus: S. brevihamatus tobuschi · S. cloveriae brackii · S. parviflorus havasupaiensis · S. parviflorus macrospermus · S. parviflorus variiflorus · S. uncinatus crassihamatus · S. wetlandicus ilseae · S. whipplei busekii · S. whipplei heilii · S. blainei (Blain's Fishook Cactus) · S. brevihamatus tobuschii (Shorthook Fishhook Cactus) · S. brevispinus (Shortspine Fishhook Cactus) · S. cloverae · S. cloveriae (Clover's Fishhook Cactus) · S. cloveriae cloveriae · S. contortus (Canyonlands Fishhook Cactus) · S. erectocentrus (Redspine Fishhook Cactus) · S. glaucus (Uinta Basin Hookless Cactus) · S. havasupaiensis · S. havasupaiensis var. roseus · S. heilii · S. intertextus (Chihuahua Pineapple Cactus) · S. intertextus var. dasyacanthus · S. intertextus var. intertextus · S. johnsonii (Johnson Barrel Cactus) · S. mariposensis (Lloyd's Fishhook Cactus) · S. megarhizus · S. mesae-verdae (Mesa Verde Cactus) · S. nyensis (Nye County Fishhook Cactus) · S. papyracanthus (Paper-Spine Fish-Hook Cactus) · S. papyracanthus var. Curly Spines · S. parviflora · S. parviflorus (Devil's-Claw Cactus) · S. parviflorus f. macrospermus · S. parviflorus f. terrae-canyonae · S. parviflorus f. variiflorus · S. parviflorus terrae-canyonae · S. polyancistrus (Hermit Cactus) · S. pubispinus (Great Basin Fishhook Cactus) · S. scheeri (Fish-Hook Cactus) · S. scheerii · S. schleseri · S. schlesseri (Schlesser's Fishhook Cactus) · S. sheeri (Tobusch Fishhook Cactus) · S. spinosior (Desert Valley Fish-Hook Cactus) · S. spinosior blainei · S. spinosior var. blainei · S. spinosior var. schleseri · S. spinosior var. schlesseri · S. terrae-canyonae (Longspine Fishhook Cactus) · S. tobuschii · S. uncinatus (Chihuahuan Fishhook Cactus) · S. uncinatus var. crassihamatus · S. uncinatus var. uncinatus · S. uncinatus var. wrightii (Chihuahuan Fishhook Cactus) · S. unguispinus · S. unguispinus var. durangensis · S. warnockii (Warnock's Fishhook Cactus) · S. wetlandicus · S. wetlandicus var. ilseae · S. whipplei (Whipple Fishhook Cactus) · S. whipplei (Engelm. & Bigelow) Britton & Rose var. whipplei (Engelm. & Bige · S. whipplei var. ilseae · S. whipplei var. pygmaeus · S. whipplei var. reevesii · S. whipplei var. whipplei · S. wrightiae (Wright Fishhook Cactus) · S. wrightii

Bibliography

• .Li Zhenyu. 1999. Cactaceae. In: Ku Tsuechih, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 52(1): 272-285.
• Anderson, E. F. 2001. The cactus family. (Cact Fam)
• Benson, L. 1982. The cacti of the United States and Canada. (Cact US Can)
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. (F NAmer)
• Heil, K. D. and J. M. Porter. 1994. Sclerocactus (Cactaceae): A revision. Haseltonia 2: 20-46.
• Hochstätter, F. 1996b. The genus Sclerocactus (Cactaceae)---Part 3. Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 14: 183-188.
• Hochstätter, F. 1995. The genus Sclerocactus (Cactaceae)---Part 1. Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 13: 73-79.
• Hochstätter, F. 1996. The genus Sclerocactus (Cactaceae)---Part 2. Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 14: 76-84.
• Hochstätter, F. 1997. The genus Sclerocactus (Cactaceae)---Part 4. Cact. Succ. J. Gr. Brit. 15: 74-81.
• Hunt, D. 1992. CITES Cactaceae checklist. (CITES Cact L)
• United States Fish and Wildlife Service. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Species Information: threatened and endangered animals and plants - on-line resource. (US Fish & Wildl List)
• Welsh, S. L. et al. 1987. A Utah flora. Great Basin Naturalist Mem. 9. (F Utah) [= S. whipplei var. roseus (Clover) L. D. Benson].

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Notes

Contributors:

• Bisby FA, Roskov YR, Orrell TM, Nicolson D, Paglinawan LE, Bailly N, Kirk PM, Bourgoin T, van Hertum J, eds (2008). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist Taxonomic Classification. CD-ROM; Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed February 01, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.
• USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 27, 2008)

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 01, 2008:

• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers:

• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 19759
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 252391
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Identifier: Q21I
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: SCWHG
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 34948

Footnotes:

1. Zhen-yu Li & Nigel P. Taylor "Cactaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 209. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. Kenneth D. Heil & J. Mark Porter "Sclerocactus". in Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 98, 99, 193, 197. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.