Common Name: CACTUS FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, generally fleshy. Stem: cylindric to spheric, or flat; surface smooth, tubercled, or ribbed (grooved); nodal areoles bearing flowers. Leaf: generally 0 or early-deciduous, flat to +- cylindric. Spines: areoles generally with central, radial spines, occasionally with glochids. Flower: generally 1 per areole, bisexual [unisexual], sessile, radial [bilateral]; perianth parts generally many [5], scale-like to petal-like; stamens many; ovary inferior [superior], style 1, stigma lobes generally several [many]. Fruit: dry to fleshy or juicy, indehiscent to variously dehiscent, spiny, scaly, or naked; tubercled or smooth. Seed: generally many, occasionally 0--few. Genera In Family: +- 125 genera, +- 1800 species: America (especially deserts), Africa; many cultivated, some edible. Note: Spines smaller, fewer (0) in shade forms; yellow spines blacken in age. Introduced species increasingly escape cultivation. Hybridization common in some genera. eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce D. Parfitt, Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: FISHHOOK CACTUS Habit: Generally erect (decumbent or prostrate), branched or not, branches 0--9(50). Stem: 5--30 cm, [1.8]3--7.5[20] cm diam, spheric to cylindric [or obconic], firm to soft, not regularly segmented; ribs 0, tubercles prominent, conic to cylindric, not grooved. Spines: [2]14--64(90) per areole, < 2 mm diam, needle-like [to hair-like or bristle-like], glabrous [or plumose], straight or hooked [or curved to crinkly]; central spines 1--4 [0--many] per areole, generally hooked. Flower: lateral, in axils of tubercles, 1--5 [7.5] cm diam; perianth cream to white, pink, purple, or lavender; ovary glabrous, spines 0, scales 0. Fruit: club-shaped or cylindric to ovoid [or barrel-shaped], indehiscent, generally red, spines 0. Seed: 0.8--1.5 mm, generally shiny, generally pitted or raised-netted, black [brown to +- red or +- yellow], occasionally with aril. Etymology: (Latin: nipple) eFlora Treatment Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Reference: Hunt 1984 Bradleya 2:65--96; Hunt 1985 Bradleya 3:53--66; Hunt 1987 Bradleya 5:17--48
Mammillaria tetrancistra Engelm.
NATIVE Stem: generally 1, 7--25 cm, 3.5--7.5 cm diam, cylindric, soft; tubercle axils bristly. Spines: central spines 3--4 per areole, lowermost 18--25 mm, 1+ hooked, tips dark; radial spines 30--60, in 2--3 superimposed ranks, 6--10(20) mm. Flower: 25 mm, 25--35 mm diam; outer perianth parts long-fringed; inner perianth parts 20--28, pink or rose-purple to lavender. Fruit: 15--32 mm, cylindric in age. Seed: aril corky, tan, >= 1/2 seed length. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Sandy hills, valleys, plains, creosote-bush scrub; Elevation: 130--1400 m. Bioregional Distribution: D; Distribution Outside California: to Utah, Arizona, northern Mexico. Flowering Time: Apr Jepson eFlora Author: Bruce D. Parfitt Reference: Hunt 1984 Bradleya 2:65--96; Hunt 1985 Bradleya 3:53--66; Hunt 1987 Bradleya 5:17--48 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Mammillaria grahamii var. grahamii Next taxon: Opuntia
Botanical illustration including Mammillaria tetrancistra
Citation for this treatment: Bruce D. Parfitt 2012, Mammillaria tetrancistra, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=32702, accessed on April 23, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 23, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
MAP LEGEND View all CCH records All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
