Bristly-looking, cylindric stems with bands of multicolored red spines give this 12-inch tall, clumping hedgehog cactus its common names. Clusters of funnel-shaped, yellowish-green flowers that don’t fully open grow on spiny pedicels on sides of the stem, not the apex. Note the long, white, curved lower radial spine in each areole.

FLOWER: March–May. Unscented, funnel-shaped flowers up to 1-inch (2.5 cm) long and wide occur on the sides of the stem (not the apex) and don’t fully open. Petal-like tepals delicate, yellowish-green, lance-shaped with pointed to rounded tips, outer tepals with a brownish median stripe, anthers yellow, stigma with 8–10 green lobes. Fruit oval to round, 1/2-inch long (12 mm), green to brownish, somewhat fleshy.

SPINES: Each areole has 2–6 central spines aligned in straight row,  1–1 5/8-inches long (2.5–4.3 cm), reddish, white often with red tips; radial spines 15–23 comb-like 1/2-inch long (1.4 cm), white to multicolored. The bristly interlocked spines may obscure the stem.

HABITAT: Rocky, sandy soils of semidesert grasslands, short-grass prairies, desert scrub, foothills.

ELEVATION: 3,900–5,300 feet.

RANGE: NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The Echinocereus viridiflorus complex contains a large number of plants with various combinations of flower color and spine characteristics, but the areoles never have white felt and the flowers are less than 1-inch long and wide. Subsp. cylindricus, in much the same range but extending to higher elevations, has shorter spines, 0–3 centrals, and yellow flowers. Bristly red-spined plants in NM recently have been segregated as E. chloranthus subsp. rhyolithensis.

NM COUNTIES: Southern NM in low-elevation, arid habitats Dona Ana, Eddy, Lincoln, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro.