Homalocephala texensis (Hopffer) Britton & Rose

🌱 Morphology
Solitary cactus, very low-growing and strongly depressed, which usually grows practically level with the ground and can remain partially hidden among the grasses of its habitat. The stem is pale grayish-green in western populations and greener in eastern ones, with a height of 10–20 cm and a diameter of up to about 30 cm. It features 13–27 very marked ribs with relatively sharp crests. The areoles are discreet and provided with robust spines, generally 5–7 radial and one much longer central spine. The central spine can reach 7.5–8 cm, is flattened, rigid, and curved downward; the spines have shades ranging from straw-colored to pink, reddish, or gray and display very characteristic transverse bands. In western populations, the central spines can be especially long and project outward.

🌍 Distribution, habitat, and family
It is widely distributed across the southern United States, mainly Texas, southeastern New Mexico, and southwestern Oklahoma, and continues into northeastern Mexico, in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas. It lives from practically sea level up to about 1400 m, in the Chihuahuan Desert and transition zones, on sandy, clayey, or calcareous soils, plains, valleys, grasslands, xerophytic scrub, and limestone hills. It can even grow in areas where a layer of grass or snow completely hides it. It belongs to the Cactaceae family, subfamily Cactoideae, tribe Cacteae.

The genus Homalocephala was reinstated in the taxonomy of Joël Lodé in his 2026 review. The index of Taxonomy of the Cactaceae, volumes III–VI, expressly includes Homalocephala texensis.

❄️ Temperature · USDA Zone 7a
It tolerates minimum temperatures of down to −18 ºC when dry and with well-acclimated specimens. There are natural populations subjected to even lower temperatures, but in cultivation, it is especially important that the root system remains dry during frosts.

☀️ Lighting
It needs direct sun and very intense lighting to maintain its extremely compact habit and develop strong, well-colored spines. Lack of light promotes more elongated growth and produces less robust spination. As a guide, during active growth, a DLI PAR of 20–30 mol·m⁻²·day⁻¹ is recommended.

💧 Growth cycle and watering
Winter rest. During the cold period, it must be kept completely dry. In spring and summer, growth resumes and it can be watered abundantly but spaced out, letting the substrate dry completely before the next watering. Although it comes from arid regions, its distribution area receives very different rainfall depending on the population; in cultivation, the determining factor is to avoid keeping the roots damp during cold periods.

🌸 Flowering
The flowers appear in the apical area, generally from late spring to summer, even in relatively small specimens. They reach approximately 5–6 cm in length and diameter and present a color varying between white, pale pink, silvery pink, and intense pink, with a characteristic red throat. The fruits are one of its most striking features: fleshy, globose or ovoid, and scarlet to crimson red, they can reach about 5 cm in length and 3–4 cm in diameter. Upon ripening, they present scales that detach easily and open irregularly. A sweet is made from these fruits.

🌿 Nutrition
During the active growth period, a fertilizer with high content of assimilable calcium and low nitrogen levels, such as Desert CHOICE® Cactáceas, is recommended, applied once a month when watering. Before flowering, it can be supplemented with Desert CHOICE® Floración.

This is an inimitable xerophyte grown in Madrid in a technological square pot with the substrate activated with mycorrhizal fungi and biofungicides.