Xerophyte

Central Spines

5 to 12, needle-like, puberulent, 4-9 mm long, much stouter than the radials, straight, white to yellow to reddish, with darker tips (Typcally yellow in subsp. prolifera).

Seeds

Black, pitted, a little depressed; aril white, triangular.

Description

Mammillaria proliferaSN|9303]]SN|9303]] is a low growing cactus, commonly branching to form colonies often 6 dm in diameter. Four subspecies are recognized, the nominate subspecies, subspecies arachnoidea (D.R.Hunt) D.R.Hunt, subspecies haitiensis and subspecies multiceps (Salm-Dyck) U.Guzmán (including subsp. texana (Engelm.) D.R.Hunt.).

Tubercles

Cylindrical to conic, about 8 mm long, spreading, without latex, Axils of tubercles with several long, hair-like bristles.

Flowers

10-18 mm long, borne in old axils but toward top of plant, small, yellowish white, cream or pinkish yellow. Inner perianth-segments erect, pale yellow, with brownish mid-rib, acute; filaments pale rose-coloured; anthers at first deflexed inward; style shorter than filaments; stigma-lobes 3, yellow.

Stem

The individual stems dark green, globose, cylindric or club shaped to 9 cm high, 3 to 7 cm in diameter (6-7 cm in diameter in subsp. prolifera), of soft texture.

Radial Spines

25-40, hair-like, often intergrading with the centrals, straight or twisted, white to yellow to brown, 3-12 mm long.

Fruits

Crowned by persistent withering perianth, club shaped to cylindrical, somewhat curved, 1.5 to 2 cm long, scarlet.