Plant Species of the Borrego Desert: Cactaceae: Echinocereus engelmannii

Plant Species of the Borrego Desert:
Echinocereus engelmannii

This page has only two purposes for now. The first was to list the highest number of stems observed for this species in the Borrego Desert. I just started this page on 24 January 2023, so it will probably be a while before it contains the actual highest numbers. There are almost 2,000 observations of this species posted at iNat from the Borrego Desert, which is a lot of obs to look through to find the ones with the most stems. If anyone runs across a pix with more than 60 stems that should be listed here, let me know. The Jepson eFlora treatment says that the number of stems is less than 60.
Table 1. Record Number of Stems for Echinocereus engelmannii in the Borrego Desert

# of Stems Location (linked to pix)
139 Yaqui Ridge 3 December 2010
80 Bitter Creek, Grapevine Canyon 15 November 2011
62 Glorietta Canyon, 22 January 2023
62 PCT north of Scissors Crossing, 19 December 2024

For some, the number of stems is linked to a pix with counts of the number of stems.

The second purpose is to report a survey done on 19 December 2024 of the number of stems seen in all Echinocereus engelmannii plants seen between mile 4.0 and mile 4.5 on the PCT north of Scissors Crossing, all at an elevation close to 3100 feet. I thank Don Rideout for helping with this survey.
The data are presented in Table 2. A total of 30 plants were counted for their number of stems. The median number of stems was seven. The number of stems ranged from a single stem, to a single plant with 34 stems. The next highest stem count was 22.
We saw only two dead Echinocereus engelmannii plants in the survey area, which we did not include in the stem counts.
Table 2. Histogram of the Number of Stems per plant for Echinocereus engelmannii on the PCT north of Scissors Crossing, Mile 4.0 to Mile 4.5

# of Stems # of Plants
1 1
2 1
3 2
4 4
5 1
6 2
7 5
8 1
9 1
10 1
11
12 2
13
14 1
15 1
16 1
17 2
18 1
19
20
21 1
22 1
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34 1

# of Stems	Location (linked to pix)
139	Yaqui Ridge 3 December 2010
80	Bitter Creek, Grapevine Canyon 15 November 2011
62	Glorietta Canyon, 22 January 2023
62	PCT north of Scissors Crossing, 19 December 2024

# of Stems	# of Plants
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	1
6	2
7	5
8	1
9	1
10	1
11
12	2
13
14	1
15	1
16	1
17	2
18	1
19
20
21	1
22	1
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34	1

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Plant Species of the Borrego Desert

Copyright © 2023-2024 by Tom Chester
Commercial rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce any or all of this page for individual or non-profit institutional internal use as long as credit is given to me at this source:
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Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Updated 22 December 2024

Plant Species of the Borrego Desert:
Echinocereus engelmannii

Table 1. Record Number of Stems for Echinocereus engelmannii in the Borrego Desert

Table 2. Histogram of the Number of Stems per plant for Echinocereus engelmannii on the PCT north of Scissors Crossing, Mile 4.0 to Mile 4.5

# of Stems	# of Plants
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	1
6	2
7	5
8	1
9	1
10	1
11
12	2
13
14	1
15	1
16	1
17	2
18	1
19
20
21	1
22	1
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34	1

# of Stems	# of Plants
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	1
6	2
7	5
8	1
9	1
10	1
11
12	2
13
14	1
15	1
16	1
17	2
18	1
19
20
21	1
22	1
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34	1

Plant Species of the Borrego Desert: Echinocereus engelmannii

Table 1. Record Number of Stems for Echinocereus engelmannii in the Borrego Desert

Table 2. Histogram of the Number of Stems per plant for Echinocereus engelmannii on the PCT north of Scissors Crossing, Mile 4.0 to Mile 4.5

Plant Species of the Borrego Desert:
Echinocereus engelmannii

# of Stems	# of Plants
1	1
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	1
6	2
7	5
8	1
9	1
10	1
11
12	2
13
14	1
15	1
16	1
17	2
18	1
19
20
21	1
22	1
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34	1