This genus is endemic to arid coastal deserts of Peru and Chile, influenced, in winter, by the cold Humboldt Current. It grows on layers of pebbles or sand, on soils which are usually without humus, and, after flowering, its very showy fruits, once ripe, open at the base and are blown away by the wind once dry. The seeds contained in it, which can survive for several years, are, then, dispersed. Almost all botanists treat Islaya as a synonym for Eriosyce.
