When Chris found one single individual of this yellow-spined, yellow-flowered variant on a TCSS-sponsored salvage mission north of Tucson, he took it home for his personal collection. When he found another one or two of the same type from nearby areas a year or two later, he adopted them as well, and set about cross-breeding them in an effort to introduce a specifically yellow form in both spination and floral color, which was how the cultivar got its common name. (Note: I append the ‘var luteus’ myself to help distinguish what we are discussing here, but it is not an official, scientifically-named variety to my knowledge.) Most Ferocactus wislizenii plants have grayish to slightly reddish spines and orange to red flowers, so this golden one is a worthwhile clone to seek out if you are a fan of the genus Ferocactus.

After controlling the pollination of the several yellow-spined, yellow-flowered barrels and ensuring that each was the pollen parent to the fruits of the others, Chris distributed seeds to several Tucson nurseries to produce thousands of seedlings. The plants grew rapidly (for a cactus) under benevolent nursery care and within a few years they were ready for wider introduction.

Tucson Golden Barrels were introduced more widely into cultivation in 2009, when the TCSS hosted the Biannual Cactus and Succulent Society of America Convention and gave all attendees a 4″ potted plant of the species free of charge. Despite that dispersal of hundreds of seedlings amongst collectors and cactus enthusiasts, the plants remain challenging to find for sale. After the 2009 convention I was fortunate to be able to obtain several flats of 4″ pots, most of which I sold long ago. However I made sure to retain about a dozen of them for my own purposes, mainly to be planted out as garden specimens. As readers can see here, my domestically-planted ones in the ground have finally reached blooming size, and if all goes well I might be able to offer seeds from them in the near future.

It should be noted that these Tucson Golden Barrels should not be confused with similarly yellow-spined Ferocactus chrysacanthus from Baja California’s Cedros Island, or the very commonly sold and widespread golden barrel, Echinocactus grusonii. These are distinctly different and rather unique. I’ll also add that all 32 or so species of Ferocactus are worth growing and collecting.