Xerophyte

Habit

It is a clumping plants that forms low, dense mounds sometime up to 40 cm wide entirely covered by the mass of white feathery spines.

Central Spines

Absent.

Seeds

Black.

Description

Mammillaria plumosa var. roseifloraSN|33266]]SN|33266]] is a selected form or cultivars with pink flowers instead of yellowish white. All the other characteristics namely stems size and form, spines, fruits etc. are identical to the standard species.

Tubercles

Small, flattened, 2-4 mm long, somewhat woolly in their axil.

Flowers

Up to 3-15 mm long sweetly scented. Perianth segment white or pale pink with a purplish-pink line running down to the centre.

Stem

Depressed globose or somewhat elongate, without latex, spherical, 4- 7 cm high and in diameter. Light green, but appearing white because of the dense spines.

Radial Spines

About 40 per areole 1 - 7 mm long, white, weak, interlacing, feathery. The spines in this specie have very long hairs along the spine-axis arranged as are the segments of a bird's feather and that furnish an epidermal protection against the blasting sun of the desert.