Species
+

Ferocactus johnstonianus Britton & Rose

Cactaceae

Climate known 12 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 johnstonianus is a species of Ferocactus found in Mexico

Text from Wikipedia, “Ferocactus johnstonianus”, 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
Britton & Rose
Native to
Mexico Northwest
Wild records
25 in range· 13 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Aug, mean day; nights 27 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
71mm/yr
no wet month · peak Dec 16 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–54DLI
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: no rainy season to read (71 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere. Habitat rain 71 mm a year, wettest December at 16 mm, driest May at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 54 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.2 °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 Echinocactus johnstonianus (Britton & Rose) Fosberg; Ferocactus acanthodes var. johnstonianus (Britton & Rose) G.Unger; Ferocactus acanthoides var. johnstonianus (Britton & Rose) G.Unger.

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: no rainy season to read (71 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere.

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

Rain at the habitat is 71 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as November to April. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

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 71 mm a year, wettest December at 16 mm, driest May at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

71 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month December at 16 mm, driest May at 0 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 64 mm to 80 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: 23 to 54 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 54 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 22, 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 10.2 °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 10.2 °C, the absolute minimum 4.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.3 °C in February (across the envelope cells 11.6 °C to 14.3 °C), warmest day 32.2 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.2 °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: 41 to 52% 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 19 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Aug; mean night from 13 °C in Feb to 27 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 71 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 7 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°33.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter01020mm rainDLI 23–54RH 41–52 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 7 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 °C19 / 17–1919 / 17–2021 / 18–2324 / 19–2626 / 21–2930 / 24–3332 / 25–3532 / 26–3531 / 26–3328 / 24–2923 / 21–2419 / 18–20
Night °C14 / 11–1513 / 12–1414 / 13–1515 / 14–1718 / 16–1921 / 18–2326 / 21–2727 / 22–2825 / 21–2621 / 18–2217 / 15–1915 / 12–15
Rain mm9 / 8–116 / 6–104 / 4–710 / 0–102 / 2–36 / 3–811 / 7–139 / 7–107 / 6–716 / 14–16
DLI25 / 24–2732 / 30–3341 / 39–4249 / 47–4953 / 51–5354 / 51–5450 / 49–5046 / 46–4741 / 40–4235 / 33–3627 / 26–2923 / 22–25
RH %51 / 49–5448 / 47–5345 / 45–5443 / 42–5442 / 42–5741 / 41–5748 / 44–5850 / 46–5849 / 48–5848 / 47–5550 / 48–5352 / 51–54

Each figure is the median across the 7 grid cells holding the 11 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 1216:1333 (29.175, -113.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.5 °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 7 distinct grid cells holding the 11 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1216:1333 (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 29.00_-113.125, lapse-corrected +215 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 333 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.
NativeMexico Northwest
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.366, -113.363 · in the densest population, 24 records (96% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 25 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 13 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 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 25 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ferocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianusFerocactus johnstonianus

Photographs: (c) Sula Vanderplank, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); Sula Vanderplank, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

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 johnstonianus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2022) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2022) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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; this build: skipped
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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.