Echinocereus fendleri var. kuenzleri

Occurs in the Central Highlands of New Mexico. Recent surveys have found the species to be more widespread and with higher density within New Mexico than previously thought. Threats include fires, livestock grazing, and illegal harvest/collection.

Mountains of south-central New Mexico in Lincoln, Otero, and Eddy Counties. Its range extends approximately 100 miles (USFWS 2005) on the eastern slopes of the Sacramento, Capitan, and Guadalupe Mountains. Mellen (1991), reported it as far south as the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, in the Santa Clara Valley but this is likely a misidentification of E. hempelii.

Eleven population centers are known; two in the Guadalupe Mountains, eight in the Sacramento Range, and one in low hills between the Guadalupe Mountains and the Sacramento Range (USFWS 2005). May et al. (2008) found 2449 cacti on 21 hillsides at the Fort Stanton Special Area of Environmental Concern in Lincoln Co. (none in Eddy Co.), New Mexico; also noting several additional sites between the surveyed area and Eddy Co. in subsequent years with the species present.

Major threats are wild or prescribed fires and livestock grazing. Recovery from fire is slow; severe or frequent fire would be a threat (Sivinski 2007). Livestock grazing is a threat due to trampling, erosion, and removal of insulating cover that may affect seedling establishment (USFWS 2005). Collection was a severe threat but greenhouse-grown plants and seeds are now available; occasional poaching may still occur but is unlikely in most of its range (USFWS 2005). Right-of-way maintenance is a potential threat. Future development could also threaten the species. Sivinski (1999) studied the effects of a 1993 natural wildfire that burned within a population in the Guadalupe Mountains on the Lincoln National Forest and this population was found to have only one-third the numbers of cacti within the burned area seven years after the fire, as compared to a similar area of adjacent unburned habitat. Fire mortality was apparently severe and regeneration of the burned population segment was slow, therefore, frequent prescribed fires could have significant impacts on this cactus (USFWS, 2005).