Xerophyte

Habit

Plant solitary. With age it may offset from the base to form a small cluster.

Central Spines

4 or 5, sometimes absent, awl shaped, ascending, red to dark brown, one occasionally hooked, puberulent.

Seeds

Brownish black, coarsely pitted.

Description

Mammillaria painteriSN|15655]]SN|8862]] is a small globular cactus, almost hidden by the spines. It is also known by many to be synonymous with Mammillaria crinitaSN|8864]]SN|8841]] subsp. crinita and is one of the several forms of it with red, brown or coffee coloured central spines (the other forms have yellow centrals). Other similar forms with dark central spines comprises

Tubercles

Conical or cylindrical, not compacted, usually without bristles in their axils, amd without latex.

Flowers

Shallow and funnel-shaped 15 mm long, greenish white or pale light yellow. Rarely, it will sometimes produce light pink or magenta flowers as well, the outer segments brownish; inner perianth-segments broad, with an ovate acute tip; stamens white; stigma-lobes cream-coloured.

Stem

Globose, dark green, about 2-8 high and cm in diameter. In its monstrous form, Mammillaria painteri f. monstruosaSN|8862]]SN|15655]], it can grow to be larger than that.

Radial Spines

About 20, bristly, stiff, white, flattened against the stem, puberulent under a hand lens.

Fruits

Globose to ovate, green to bright red.