Echinofossulocactus sulphureus    3/22/22
I've googled this species for several years. I've never seen a plant that looks like my 15 plants, one of which is above. I think that's what's on the web are some sort of hybrids happening to have yellow flowers and since "sulphureus" means "sulfur yellow," those pictures are now taken to be this species by some people. Wrong-o. Even the books are full of gibberish. I base my confidence of the correct ID of my plants on the fact that I don't think Steven Brack, who sold me the seeds when he owned Mesa Garden, in Belen NM, the premier cactus and other succulent seed source in the world, was often wrong in his IDs. Just to firm up this name: the person who named the plant wrote British English. In England, sulfur is spelled sulphur. This must be the spelling that we use to write about this species everywhere in the world. Minor spelling variations are accepted into taxonomy and may not be changed for spelling quibbles, which is what American English and Australian English vs the Queen's English and New Zealand English are. Color and colour are just minor annoyances to people who can keep the spelling of "Echinofossulocactus" straight. In examining the google pictures, I've formed the opinion that they are hybrids of Echinofossulocactus vaupelianus, the only other yellow flowered species I know of in this genus. And, by the way, let me caution you about Echinofossulocacti. They seem to be ravenous for hybridization. I think that any two species of Echinofossulocactus which I choose to try to cross will do so, no problem.   (09/40)   

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