Species
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Ferocactus wislizeni (Engelm.) Britton & Rose

Arizona barrel cactus, Candy Barrel Cactus, Fishhook Barrel Cactus, Southwestern Barrel Cactus

Climate known 24 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ferocactus wislizeni, the fishhook barrel cactus, also called Arizona barrel cactus, candy barrel cactus, and Southwestern barrel cactus, is a species of flowering plant in the cactus family Cactaceae, native to northern Mexico and the southern United States. It is a ball-shaped cactus eventually growing to a cylindrical shape, with spiny ribs and red or yellow flowers in summer.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ferocactus wislizeni”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ferocactus

Ferocactus is a genus of large barrel-shaped cacti, mostly with large spines and small flowers. There are about 30 species included in the genus. They are found in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ferocactus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Engelm.) Britton & Rose
Native to
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas +2
Wild records
1998 in range· 1300 open

At a glance

Warmest month
35°C
Jun, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
337mm/yr
5 wet months · peak Aug 67 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–53DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Ferocactus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to February and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to February and July to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 337 mm a year, wettest August at 67 mm, driest May at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 53 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ferocactus wislizeni var. wislizeni.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Ferocactus, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to February and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to February and July to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (249 mm of 337 mm) falls in December to February and July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 18.4 °C against a yearly mean of 19.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and June to August.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 337 mm a year, wettest August at 67 mm, driest May at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

337 mm a year at the habitat, 249 mm of it December to February and July to September. Wettest month August at 67 mm, driest May at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 186 mm to 534 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 53 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -3.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -3.3 °C, the absolute minimum -9.3 °C, about 20 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.3 °C to 7.5 °C), warmest day 34.8 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 36 to 50% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Dec to 35 °C in Jun; mean night from 3 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 337 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 34 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 21–53RH 36–50 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 34 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 12–2018 / 14–2221 / 18–2626 / 23–3030 / 27–3535 / 31–4034 / 31–4133 / 30–3931 / 28–3727 / 22–3121 / 17–2416 / 12–19
Night °C3 / -1–84 / 0–97 / 3–1110 / 7–1515 / 12–1920 / 16–2422 / 18–2721 / 18–2719 / 14–2413 / 9–187 / 3–123 / -1–7
Rain mm27 / 16–4324 / 14–4221 / 7–4010 / 5–177 / 3–129 / 1–1666 / 23–11367 / 27–10837 / 16–6024 / 11–3317 / 11–2728 / 19–44
DLI24 / 22–2530 / 28–3139 / 38–4048 / 47–4953 / 51–5353 / 51–5446 / 45–4943 / 41–4439 / 38–4033 / 32–3425 / 24–2721 / 20–23
RH %48 / 46–5146 / 44–5043 / 40–4739 / 36–4336 / 33–4136 / 32–4146 / 41–5050 / 44–5446 / 42–5044 / 41–4844 / 42–4849 / 46–51

Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 35 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1163:1377 (31.825, -111.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 34 distinct grid cells holding the 35 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1163:1377 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_-111.250, lapse-corrected +176 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1138 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“succulent subshrub or shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.119, -110.674 · in the densest population, 1587 records (79% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1998 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1300 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 19 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1963 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1998 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ferocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeniFerocactus wislizeni

Photographs: CK2AZ, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ferocactus wislizeni, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

For ant‐protected plants, the best defense is a hungry offense
J. H. Ness, William F. Morris, Judith L. Bronstein (2009) · Ecology
Does Ferocactus wislizeni (Cactaceae) have a between-year seed bank?
Janice E. Bowers (2000) · Journal of Arid Environments
A Contribution on the Life History of the Collared Peccary in Arizona
Bobby J. Neal (1959) · The American Midland Naturalist
NEW EVIDENCE FOR PERSISTENT OR TRANSIENT SEED BANKS IN THREE SONORAN DESERT CACTI
Janice E. Bowers (2005) · The Southwestern Naturalist
Implications of Seed Size for Seedling Survival in Carnegiea gigantea and Ferocactus wislizeni (Cactaceae)
Janice E. Bowers, Elizabeth A. Pierson (2001) · The Southwestern Naturalist
ENVIRONMENTAL FORCING AND THE COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS OF A GUILD OF CACTUS-TENDING ANT MUTUALISTS
William F. Morris, William G. Wilson, Judith L. Bronstein, J. H. Ness (2005) · Ecology
Life History and Laboratory Rearing of Narnia femorata (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae) with Descriptions of Immature Stages
Helen K. Vessels, C. Scott Bundy, J. E. McPherson (2013) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
An Herbivore’s Thermal Tolerance is Higher Than That of the Ant Defenders in a Desert Protection Mutualism
Ginny Fitzpatrick, Goggy Davidowitz, Judith L. Bronstein (2013) · Sociobiology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ferocactus 17 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.