Xerophyte

Central Spines

Usually only 1, but sometime up to 5, of which 1 to 3 hooked, 2 cm long, stronger than the radials, brown, paler below. Under a lens the spines shows a fine down-like pubescence.

Seeds

Black or blackish brown pitted almost round, about 1,7 mm long

Description

Mammillaria wilcoxii is a solitary plant without a large underground base, often regarded as a western form of Mammillaria wrightiiSN|9411]]SN|9411]].

Axils

Naked.

Tubercle Arrangement

5-8 or 8-13

Flowering Period

May-june.

Tubercles

Cylindrical to conical slightly flattened 5-20 mm long, bases about 5 mm wide.

Flowers

Campanulate, pink, pale rose to vivid purple, or rarely white, to 35 mm long and 30-40 mm in diameter when fully expanded. Outer perianth segments 20 brownish-green linener pointed and fringed with white hairs. Tepals about 40 in 2 rows, long narrow, pointed, reflexed, often with darker midveins and cream-coloured margins; Filaments white to pink with orangish-yellow anthers; Style 5-9 lobed green;

Stem

Depressed, rounded, nearly spherical to short-cylindrical, flabby in texture, green to dull-green, up to 12 cm in diameter, but often much smaller about 5-6 cm in diameter. Without latex.

Radial Spines

14 - 16(-22), thin, bristle-like, slender and straight, white with slighter brown tips or occasianally the wole spine light brown, to 8-15 mm long, widely spreading outward and interlocking.

Fruits

Greenish, greenish-purple or brownish, obovate, 18-25 mm long up to 15 mm in diameter.

Areoles

Like in the other Mammillaria the areoles are dimorphic, with a circular to oval spinous part with short wool on the tip of the tubercles and the floral portion in the axil.