Sclerocactus polyancistrus is a species of cactus, known by its common name, Mojave Fishook Cactus, which grows in the Mojave Desert at elevations of 1,500 feet to 7,500 feet.
Other common names for this plant are redspined fishhook cactus, the pineapple cactus, and hermit cactus.
In addition to the Mojave Desert, it also proliferates in the desert of Southern Nevada.
This cactus can be found among desert scrub in woodlands, particularly pinyon-juniper woodlands and canyons, often on a limestone substrate or in rocky soil, on basalt rock hillsides, limestone hillsides, and desert pavement, generally on south to southwest facing slopes.
The Sclerocactus polyancistrus cactus has a cylindrical stem up to 10 inches tall by three inches wide. The plants may grow in clusters. The cactus is densely spiny, each areole has several reddish or white central spines with hooked tips and several more white spines around the edge.
It bears fragrant flowers is up to four inches wide and may be most any shade of pink or red-violet. The scaly, fleshy extended fruit is at first tan, then green and finally red-colored, varying in size anywhere from slightly less than an inch long to slightly more than an inch long.
A low, cylindrical cactus with one or many thick-clustered stems grows to 6 inches high. Many hooked spines, 1/2-inch long at the tips of the cactus, are surrounded by numerous, straight, tan-to-pink ones.
This cactus is sometimes confused with the with the Fishhook Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus wislizenii) of the Chihuahuan Desert.
The Sclerocactus polyancistrus has a relatively wide range, and tends to grow in inaccessible areas and in protected areas.
though there are no major threats to this species, in the Mojave Desert there has been habitat loss due to urbanization.
The stems of these cacti are unbranched or in clusters of anywhere from ten to 40, cylindric or elongate cylindric, running from two to four-and-a-half inches, with ribs and no evident tubercles. The ten to fifteen white and glabrous radial spines on each areole are dense, often obscuring the stems.
The flowers have a pungent spicy odor and their outer tepals bear greenish purple midstripes contrasted with rose-purple or magenta margins. The inner tepals are rose-purple to magenta, though some are on rare occasion white. Filaments tend to be greenish yellow.