Xerophyte

Central Spines

2 (sometime 3-4 or rarely 5) usually bent downwards, rigid and whitish with dark brown tips, often purple red coloured on the new growth, the upper one, 4-8 mm long, the lower one up to 35 mm long often subulate.

Seeds

Pyriform, about 1,5 mm long, brown, edible.

Description

Mammillaria parkinsoniiSN|20725]]SN|20725]] is a woolly, mound forming species, that, as it ages, tufts by dichotomic division forming compact bunches up to 60 cm in diameter (or more). This species is especially variable in spine length.

Tubercles

Spirally arranged, 8-10 mm long, 4-6 mm broad, pyramidal, with latex, axil woolly and silky.

Flowers

Diurnal, funnel-shaped, pale yellow with a central brownish or pinkish midvein, 12-15 mm long and in diameter, inner perianth segments apiculate; stigma lobes elongated. The flowers born in a circle close to the apex and originate from the areolae at the base of the tubercles. Flowers bud are surrounded by a mass of white wool.

Stem

Glaucous green, globose to shortly cylindrical up to about 15 cm tall, 8 to 15 cm wide, slightly depressed at apex, covered at the centre by a white wool;

Radial Spines

20-30 (or more) white, thin and slightly bent, 4-6 mm long.

Fruits

Club-shaped, about 10 mm long, orange red to scarlet.

Areoles

At first with abundant white felt, becoming naked as they ages.