Species
+

Ferocactus latispinus (Haw.) Britton & Rose

Devil's Tongue Barrel Cactus, devil's-tongue cactus

Climate known 48 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 latispinus is a species of barrel cactus native to Mexico.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ferocactus latispinus”, 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
(Haw.) Britton & Rose
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +1
Wild records
1666 in range· 439 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
May, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
527mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 102 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–46DLI
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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 527 mm a year, wettest July at 102 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.4 °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 Cactus multiangularis Voigt; Cactus multiangularis Voigt ex Steud.; Echinocactus cornigerus var. latispinus (Haw.) Voss; Echinocactus recurvus var. tricuspidatus Salm-Dyck; Echinofossulocactus cornigerus var. angustispinus Lawr. and 3 more.

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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (369 mm of 527 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.8 °C against a yearly mean of 17.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 527 mm a year, wettest July at 102 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

527 mm a year at the habitat, 369 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 102 mm, driest December at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 411 mm to 767 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: 30 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 46 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 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 0.4 °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 0.4 °C, the absolute minimum -5.8 °C, about 3 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.6 °C to 10.5 °C), warmest day 26.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.4 °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: 50 to 64% 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 21 °C in Jan to 27 °C in May; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 527 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 695 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 30–46RH 50–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 695 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 °C21 / 18–2523 / 20–2625 / 23–2827 / 24–3027 / 24–3025 / 22–2823 / 20–2624 / 21–2622 / 20–2522 / 19–2522 / 19–2521 / 19–24
Night °C7 / 5–118 / 6–119 / 7–1312 / 9–1513 / 11–1614 / 11–1713 / 11–1613 / 11–1613 / 11–1611 / 9–159 / 7–137 / 5–11
Rain mm13 / 7–2011 / 8–149 / 6–1422 / 13–3145 / 33–7088 / 61–156102 / 76–14990 / 59–13389 / 64–14041 / 31–6110 / 8–177 / 5–11
DLI31 / 29–3437 / 35–3943 / 41–4546 / 44–4845 / 43–4841 / 37–4440 / 37–4239 / 37–4234 / 32–3633 / 31–3532 / 30–3430 / 28–32
RH %54 / 50–5852 / 48–5750 / 45–5551 / 46–5555 / 50–5860 / 56–6462 / 58–6662 / 58–6664 / 60–6861 / 56–6557 / 51–6155 / 50–59

Each figure is the median across the 695 grid cells holding the 1556 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 1448:1653 (17.575, -97.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.9 °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 695 distinct grid cells holding the 1556 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1448:1653 (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 17.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected +146 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2319 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 Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.325, -97.455 · in the densest population, 905 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1666 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 439 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 110 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 1666 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ferocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinusFerocactus latispinus

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) P Gonzalez Zamora, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Eugenio Padilla, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

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

Effect of light on seed germination and seedling shape of succulent species from Mexico
Joel Flores, Claudia González‐Salvatierra, Enrique Jurado (2015) · Journal of Plant Ecology
Raman Spectroscopy Study of Calcium Oxalate Extracted from Cacti Stems
Claudio Frausto‐Reyes, Sofía Loza-Cornejo, Tania Terrazas, María de la Luz Miranda-Beltrán (2014) · Applied Spectroscopy
Phytotoxicity of carbon nanotubes and nanodiamond in long-term assays with Cactaceae plant seedlings
Vladimir A. Basiuk, Teresa Terrazas, Nayeli Luna-Martínez, Elena V. Basiuk (2018) · Fullerenes Nanotubes and Carbon Nanostructures
Optimization of the biosynthesis of naphthoquinones by endophytic fungi isolated of Ferocactus latispinus
Jorge Gracida, Alejandrina Gómez-Valadez, Xochitl Tovar-Jiménez, Aldo Amaro-Reyes (2017) · Biologia
Estacionalidad de bacterias y hongos en la rizosfera de dos especies de plantas en el Valle semiarido de Zapotitlan, Puebla
Hilda Ventura Soto Aquino, José Alejandro Zavala‐Hurtado, Jesús Pérez‐Moreno, Sara Lucía Camargo Ricalde (2018) · Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Agrícolas
Studies on Inter- generic Grafting Compatibility of Ornamental Cacti
R. Perumal, M. Prabhu, Manickam Kannan, S. Srinivasan (2020) · International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences
Propagación y conservación in vitro de siete especies de cactáceas del noreste del estado de Guanajuato
Rafael Ramírez Malagón, Eduardo Salazar Solís (2017) · Acta Universitaria
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · 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: filled 2026-09-20
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 32 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.