The blue-green stems of this barrel cactus can reach 16-inches tall and 8-inches wide with 8 broad, rounded ribs lined with spine-producing areoles. The straight to curved (not hooked) pinkish, gray, white, or blackish spines may interlock along the ribs on larger specimens.

FLOWER: April–September, especially after rains. Delicate flowers, 1 1/8–3 1/8-inch wide (2.8–8 cm) with showy, rosy-pink to magenta, uniformly-colored inner tepals bloom from the apex. Narrow, pointed outer tepals have black tips. Dense tufts of woolly hairs hide the clusters of pinkish, rounded fruit, 3/8-inch in diameter (10 mm), around the stem apex.

SPINES: Each areole has 6–9 stout, round to flattened radial spines cross-ribbed with round ridges. The similar 1–3 central spines reach 3/4-2-inches long (20–50 mm). The spines don’t hide the surface.

HABITAT: Arid rocky, sandy soils of desert scrublands, limestone hills.

ELEVATION: 2,000–6,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The smaller Horse Crippler Cactus, E. texensis, has a stem deeply set in the ground, 13–27 narrow ribs, and red fruit not hidden by woolly tufts.

NM COUNTIES: Southeast quarter of NM in low-elevation, arid habitats: Chaves, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Lincoln, Otero, Sierra.