Ultramafic soils facilitate the endemism of plant species and are often associated with their distribution.

The terminal pseudocephalium consists of bristly, flexible, gray spines.

[5] The distribution area of Lophocereus schottii extends from the south of the US state of Arizona to the northwest of Mexico and includes the states of Baja California and Sonora.

[7] The specific epithet schottii honors the German naturalist and plant collector Arthur Schott, who was involved in surveying the border between the United States and Mexico.

Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose placed the species in the genus Lemaireocereus in 1909.