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Echinocactus grusonii: Common, yet endangered
It’s not always easy to tell one cactus from another. There are many kinds that
look so similar that only experts can tell them apart, and even those may need
to rely on DNA sequences.
Some cacti are easy to recognize, however. One of those is the Echinocactus grusonii,
or golden barrel cactus, you see before you. Do you remember seeing one in the entrance hall?
Typical characteristics of this cactus are its color, a bright shade of light green, its
many ribs and yellow spines, and its broad, golden-furred crown. It blossoms for the first
time at an age of about 15 to 20 years. The flowers are a bright, sulfurous yellow, and
shine in sunlight like silk.
The golden barrel cactus is widely available commercially, and not very expensive. They
are easy to grow from seeds. Unfortunately, despite strict prohibitions, people keep removing
them from the wild. This is inexcusable in the case of the widely-cultivated golden barrel
cactus and particularly sad, as fewer than 250 examples are still growing in their original
natural habitat. A large part of the original population fell victim to dam construction,
threatening this species with extinction in the wild, even though it is a part of almost
every cactus collector’s garden. To help draw attention to this danger, the
German Cactus Society named the golden barrel cactus its Cactus of the Year for 2008.
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Echinocactus grusonii: Common, yet endangered (MP3, 640 KB)
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