[5] The plant's favored natural habitat is mostly coastal hammocks with some shade, as the cactus can become desiccated in full sun at elevations of 0-10 meters.

[4] There are ten confirmed occurrences of the plant, nine of which occur around Savannahs Preserve State Park in St. Lucie County and totalled 2150 individuals in the year 2002.

[4] The remaining habitat is degraded with the overgrowth of invasive plant species such as love vine (Cassytha filiformis).

[4] Other threats to the plant have been all-terrain vehicles, herbicides, feral pigs, and hurricane damage from wind and falling branches.

[4] A scale insect (Diaspis echinocacti), sometimes eats the stems of the cactus, and some sort of caterpillar has been noted to inflict some damage.

[4] The first description was made in 1920 by John Kunkel Small in Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose's work The Cactaceae.