Echinocereus coccineus  Claret Cup Cactus
CACTUS.  Several columnar stems with very long white to yellowish spines.  Older plants may have several dozen crowded stems that form a dome.  Flowers bright red with rounded tepals, April-June.  Grows in cracks in rock outcrops or among large boulders.  In the Empires, occasional at higher elevations in desert grassland, on all rock types.  Young plants look similar to E. fasciculatus and E. fendleri, pink-flowered species that grow on soil, not rock.  E. fasciculatus has darker, thinner spines and E. fendleri has sparser, shorter, heavier spines.  Young saguaros (Carnegia gigantea) have gray spines and are thicker and more rounded, less cylindrical.
FAMILY:  Cactaceae (Cactus Family)