Ferocactus robustus (Cactus)

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Ulises Emmanuel Martínez Burgos — fig. a Ulises Emmanuel Martínez Burgos, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-01 / obs. 185769119

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Obed Palagot Echavarria — fig. b Obed Palagot Echavarria, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 166736856

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Tereso Hernández Morales — fig. c Tereso Hernández Morales, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99737059

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov — fig. d Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 100114285

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña — fig. e Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 8305834

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Guillermo Huerta Ramos — fig. f Guillermo Huerta Ramos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74870624

Ferocactus robustus, photographed by Alan Rockefeller — fig. h Alan Rockefeller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23941745

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 2 botanical countries

Native distribution of Ferocactus robustus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.

Region	TDWG code	Continent
Mexico Central	MXC	NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southwest	MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 9 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

Echinocactus agglomeratus Karw. ex Pfeiff.
Echinocactus robustus Otto ex Pfeiff.
Echinocactus robustus Link & Otto
Echinocactus robustus var. monstruosus Pfeiff.
Echinocactus robustus var. prolifer Pfeiff.
Echinocactus subulifer Link & Otto
Echinocactus subuliferus Link & Otto
Echinofossulocactus robustus (Otto ex Pfeiff.) Lawr.
Melocactus prolifer Otto & A.Dietr.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.