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Flowers pinkish white with sharply
defined magenta midstripes, with a broad open throat. style pink,
stigma lobes bright red to red-purple, orange, or magenta.
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Description: Small
branched or (generally) unbranched in the wild. The branch (if present)
are basal and not numerous, seldom rooting.
Stems: Globose to ovoid, firm, grey-green or blue-green,
sometimes reddish in axils, 6 - 7 cm high, 10 - 12 cm in diameter;
cortex and
pith not
mucilaginous;
latex absent.
Tubercles: Cylindrical, becoming conical, somewhat incurved.9-18
× 3-9 mm, arranged in 8 and 13 spirals, protruding 12-15 mm axils
appearing naked.
Areoles: 1.5 mm in diameter, and typically 10 mm apart.
Roots: Diffuse, upper portion not enlarged.
Spines: Rather dense, partly obscuring the stem brightly colored
than
M. grahamii
yellowish, pale pinkish tan, or brown (smaller spines
paler), tipped dark chestnut brown to blackish, glabrous, sometimes ±
pubescent when young.
Radial spine: 8 - 15, yellow becoming white, with dark tips,
slender, needle-like, to 12 mm long.
Central spine: 1 - 2, porrect (extended outward or horizontally),
hooked, stout, brown or yellow, with dark tips, 11-20 mm long . The
hooked central spines are turned counterclockwise in the areoles around
the stem.
Flowers: Around the apex of the plant 2-3 × 1.5-2 cm; outermost
tepal margins densely fringed, inner tepals pinkish white with sharply
defined magenta midstripes, with a broad open throat.; style pink,
stigma lobes bright red to red-purple, orange, or magenta.
Fruits: Bright orange-red, spheric to obovoid, 5-7 × 4-4.5 mm,
filaments are pink, 3 mm long remaining beneath the spines, juicy only
in fruit walls; floral remnant weakly persistent.
Seeds: black.
Flowering season: June and July. |
Cultivation: This is very slow growing
species that requires the brightest light possible. Water sparingly,
needs good drainage as roots are easily lost in pots that stay damp for
any length of time. Require
a
mineral-based potting mix .
They
need to be kept
dry in
winter.
Propagation: Seeds (if available),
but usually easily
propagated from the offsets.
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Family:
Cactaceae (Cactus
Family) |
Scientific name:
Mammillaria
mainiae
Author and
first description by: M.K. Brandegee, in: Zoë 5(2): 31. 1900. (as
Mamillaria mainae)
Type locality: South of
Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Origin: USA (Arizona), Mexico (Sonora, northern Sinaloa)
Habitat: Sonoran desert plains (grasslands, bajadas,
valleys, washes, and alluvial fans) or in sand dunes, rocky slopes and
hillsides, usually in gravelly soil. More often on plains with Ironwood
and Mesquite and Southwestern Oak Woodlands communities, from
[60-]600-1200m. This plant is a rare and
endangered in the wild.
Mammillaria wrightii var. wilcoxii, which grows all around Nogales,
Arizona, is easily misidentified as M. mainiae.
Conservation status: Listed in
CITES appendix 2.
Common Name: Counterclockwise fishhook cactus (This cactus is
distinguishable by way of the hook that are oriented laterally and their
general pattern shows a clear counter-clockwise (anticlockwise)
orientation, hence the name. The tendency for all spine hooks on plants
to be oriented in same direction is not unique to Mammillaria mainiae)
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Synonyms:
- Neomammillaria mainae
(K. Brandegee) Britton & Rose
- Chilita mainiae
- Ebnerella mainiae
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The yellow, ball-like spine masses are dominated by the large, hooked
central spines, which form a counterclockwise whorl.
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