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Gardeners are often fascinated by the Golden Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus grusonii), which has unique characteristics as feature plants in the landscape.

First, these are the only common plants that are spherical in form, which immediately makes it a standout in garden.

There are a couple plants that resemble the Golden Barrel Cactus. The Glaucous Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus glaucescens), which grows nearby in nature also has a spherical form, but it’s not nearly as attractive. Another similar plant is the Lemon Ball cactus (Parodia leninghausii), which is a native of Brazil. It is globular in youth, but columnar in maturity.

Another important characteristic of the golden barrel is its intricate pattern of sharp spines, which protect it very effectively from predators searching for a meal.

Then, there the bright yellow color of its spines. This color can be found in the blossoms of many garden plants, but the Golden Barrel Cactus presents is splash of color on a year-round basis.

The plant does have satiny yellow flowers that whorl around the plant’s crown, but they don’t appear until the Golden Barrel is about fourteen years old. These plants are grown for their architectural qualities, not their flowers.

This plant’s natural habitat is on rocky slopes at an altitude of about 4,600 above sea level, in east-central Mexico. It is a rare and endangered species in the wild, largely because of the loss of habitat that resulted from the construction in the 1990s of a dam and reservoir in the state of Hidalgo.

Because this slow-growing plant takes about thirty years to reach its full mature size of up to 3.5 feet in diameter, it is quite possible that poachers of larger specimens also have helped to make the plant rare and endangered. This is not an easy task: even a specimen 2 feet across can weigh over 100 pounds.

If you come upon a Golden Barrel Cactus in garden center and decide to add it to your Monterey Bay area garden, install it in a location where it has full exposure to the sun. This exposure will produce spines of the darkest gold. Another placement consideration is to keep it away from where children or dogs might play: they won’t enjoy the spines.

It is important to tilt the plant slightly towards the sun. They grow naturally with that slight tilt, which lets rainwater to drain away, rather than collecting in the crown. If a purchased plant already has a tilt, install it with the same tilt toward the sun.

The plant will grow faster if it receives an occasional deep soaking during hot summer days. Water at the base with a hose or drip system, not from the top.

I have a small collection of golden barrel cacti growing in my garden. They were all acquired from garden centers and are now about eight years old. I have them growing in a small bed with good soil, drainage and exposure, but in what could be called an uninspired arrangement from a design perspective.

Although Golden Barrels Cacti prefer to remain in place throughout their lifetime, I intend to move these plants to new locations.

Relocation can be accomplished safely by using a shovel to elevate the plant’s shallow roots, and then using an old, soft garden hose or folded newspapers to protect the spines from the gardener (and the gardener from the spines) during transportation, The roots can break easily, so handle them with care and give them two weeks to settle into their new home before watering.

Attractive placement is a different challenge. To achieve a natural look, spacing a series of plants equally or arranging them in a row does not succeed. In nature, golden barrels typically grow in clusters, so emulating that arrangement probably should be the primary plan for the garden.

To see examples of golden barrel cacti in the landscape, browse to YouTube.com and search for “golden barrels.” You will find numerous websites about the cultivation and garden uses of this interesting. plant. In particular, scroll to the page titled, “The Huntington Botanical Garden Desert Garden, August 31, 2013 (Golden Barrel Fever!).” which shows hundreds of these plants in this amazing garden.

If your garden vision includes a spiny and beautiful cactus, consider the Golden Barrel Cactus for a long and interesting presence in your landscape.

Tom Karwin is president of the Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, past president of the Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999–2009). Visit ongardening.com for information on this topic. Send comments or questions to gardening@karwin.com.

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