The species is native to the Chihuahuan Desert and parts of northern Mexico and the southern United States, where they grow at elevations up to 1,500 meters (4,900 ft).

The stems are dark green and often obscured by the spines, which range from tan, brown, black, or pink, and the tips are usually darker than the shaft.

E. reichenbachii are cold and heat tolerant, and prefer dry, well-drained soils near rock outcroppings.

The scientific name, Echinocereus, comes from the Greek ekhinos, meaning hedgehog, and cereus, the Latin term for wax paper.

[6] In 1843, German botanist Carl Adolf Terscheck named a specimen of cactus collected in Mexico Echinocactus reichenbachii, but his description was incomplete and proved unhelpful to later scholars.

During the years 1848 to 1856, George Engelmann made extensive studies of a plant he named Echinocereus caespitosus.

[7] Prior to this Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck referred to plants in European collections as Echinopsis pectinate var.

This broke with the long-standing botanical tradition to use the earliest known name, but because Terscheck's description was lacking and possibly referred to as many as a dozen species, his binomial was supplanted by Haage's.

albertii (commonly called the Black Lace cactus) is a federally listed endangered species of the United States that is endemic to Texas.

albertii are found near the Kleberg, Jim Wells, and Refugio counties of south Texas.

[6] Plants are solitary or multi-branched in clusters of as many as twelve, with erect stems with 10 to 19 slightly undulate ribs.

[5] The flower's inner tepals are silvery pink or magenta; the outer portions are white, crimson, green, or multicolored.

[13] E. reichenbachii's native habitat includes the entirety of the Chihuahuan Desert and its nearby grasslands, as well as in woodlands of oak and juniper.

They thrive in dry, well-drained, gravelly, clay, and loam soils, and near rock outcroppings.