Xerophyte

Central Spines

Usually 1 hooked, 15-20(-25) mm long.

Seeds

Black.

Description

Cochemiea poselgeriSN|9651]]SN|9651]] (also known as Mammillaria poselgeri) is a cereus like cactus, forming large clumps to 2 metres wide with numerous stems from a central tuberous rootstock, spreading or sometimes pendent from rocks or creeping over the ground. It was the first Cochemiea to be discovered and described, and is a very ornamental species with incredible scarlet flowers. Really it don't looks like a Mammillaria at all.

Tubercles

Remote, distinctly upswept, conic-pyramidal, three-sided, rounded apically, somewhat flattened about 1 cm long, dark green, reddish in bright situations. Axils woolly, sometimes with a few bristles.

Flowers

Bright scarlet or red-orange rather unique in shape and appearance, appearing in the upper axils (like in Mammillaria), but near the stems apex, 3 cm or more long, zygomorphic, with a long curved tube and oblique limb with double ring of recurring segments reminiscent of Epiphyllum, but don’t open very wide; stamens and style are red and exserted, but with yellow pollen adding a colour contrast.

Blooming Season

Late summer. If they are kept dry for several months, a good watering during the hot season will trigger a big flush of bloom that lasts about two weeks. With regular watering they tend to flower sporadically and sparsely over a longer period.

Stem

Cylindrical 0,6-2 meters long, 4 cm thick, branching from base and strongly tubercled. The stems start out upright, but as they grow they tend to lay down and grow prostrate. Old stems can become very corky and brown.

Radial Spines

7 to 9, brownish or straw-coloured with white tips at first, eventually whitish 9 to 12 mm long.

Fruits

Globular, obovoid to broadly elongate, red, 6 to 8 mm in diameter and wedged between the tubercles.

Areoles

White-woolly, with the upper axils rarely setose.