Mammillaria dioica |
Mammillaria thornberi |
|
---|---|---|
California fishhook cactus, fish hook cactus, strawberry cactus |
Thornber's nipple cactus |
|
Habit | Plants unbranched or branched; branches 0–50. | Plants branching prolifically from base, every branch with independent root system, connections to rest of clone ephemeral, resulting in dense clumps of independently rooted stems. |
Roots | diffuse, upper portion not enlarged. |
diffuse, upper portion not enlarged. |
Stems | nearly spheric to more often cylindric or long cylindric, 5–30 × 5–7 cm, firm; tubercles 5–12 × 3–7 mm; axils woolly, bearing 4–15 bristles (0 in young growth) as long as tubercles; cortex and pith not mucilaginous; latex absent. |
slender cylindric, 4.5–10(–30) × 2–3.5 cm, tapered at base, firm; tubercles 5–9 × 5–9 mm; axils appearing naked; cortex and pith not mucilaginous; latex absent. |
Spines | 14–26 per areole, pinkish or reddish brown to black, glabrous; radial spines 11–22 per areole, usually white, bristlelike, 5–7 mm, stiff; central spines (1–)3–4 per areole, abaxial 1 porrect, hooked, longer, stouter, adaxial central spines ascending with radial spines; subcentral spines 0. |
14–22(–23) per areole, whitish to yellowish near base, pale reddish brown to nearly black toward tips, glabrous; radial spines 13–21 per areole, whitish, with reduced dark tips relative to central spines, bristlelike, 5–9 × 0.16 mm, stiff; central spines 1(–3) per areole, porrect, hooked, (7–)9–18 × 0.16–0.45 mm; subcentral spines 0(–3) per areole, adaxial to central spines, ± transitional to radial spines. |
Flowers | 10–22 mm; outermost tepals entire or short fringed; inner tepals cream, usually with pinkish or reddish midstripes, longer in bisexual flowers, 5.4 mm diam.; stigma lobes yellow to greenish yellow or brownish green, 8 mm. |
1.5–3 × 1.2–2.5 cm; outermost tepal margins densely short fringed; inner tepals white or pinkish with bright rose-pink midstripes, 14–19 × 5–7 mm; stigma lobes magenta, 3–6 mm. |
Fruits | bright scarlet, clavate or ovoid, 10–25(–35) × 10 mm, juicy only in fruit walls; floral remnant persistent. |
bright red, obovoid to nearly clavate, 7–15 × 4–7 mm, juicy only in fruit walls; floral remnant persistent. |
Seeds | black, 0.8 × 0.6 mm, pitted; testa hard; anticlinal cell walls straight (not undulate); interstices conspicuously wider than pit diameters; pits bowl-shaped. |
black, 0.9–1.1 × 0.8–1.1 × 0.7 mm, pitted; testa hard, brittle; anticlinal cell walls straight (not undulate); interstices conspicuously wider than pit diameters; pits bowl-shaped. |
2n | = 66. |
= 22. |
Mammillaria dioica |
Mammillaria thornberi |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring (Mar–May); fruiting summer. | Flowering Apr–May, Jul–Aug; fruiting Oct–Nov, Feb–Mar. |
Habitat | California coastal scrub, Colorado subdivision of Sonoran desert scrub, rocky slopes | Sonoran desert scrub, valley floors, under shrubs, silty or sandy soils |
Elevation | 10-1500 m (0-4900 ft) | 400-600 m (1300-2000 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
|
AZ; Mexico (Sonora) |
Discussion | In an inland population in California, Mammillaria dioica was found to be functionally gynodioecious (F. R. Ganders and H. Kennedy 1978), with flowers of some plants bisexual while those of other individuals bear only functionally female flowers with sterile anthers. Coastal populations of the species were not studied and might be “trioecious” with staminate, pistillate, and bisexual flowers on different plants (B. D. Parfitt 1985). Plants of Mammillaria dioica in Mexico are both tetraploid and hexaploid (M. A. T. Johnson 1978). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The epithet fasciculata was long misapplied to Mammillaria thornberi; it correctly pertains to Echinocereus fasciculatus (Engelmann) L. D. Benson. Mammillaria thornberi is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 253. | FNA vol. 4, p. 253. |
Parent taxa | Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Mammillaria | Cactaceae > subfam. Cactoideae > Mammillaria |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | K. Brandegee: Erythea 5: 115. (1897) | Orcutt: W. Amer. Sci. 12: 161. (1902) |
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