Mamillaria tetrancistra Engelm. Am. Jour. Sci. II. xiv. 337
(1852), in part.
Mamillaria phellosperma Engelm. Syn. Cact. 262 (1856).
Cactus pellospermus Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 261 (1891).
Ovate or ovate-cylindrical, 5 to 25 cm. high, 3.5 to 7.5 cm. in
diameter, simple or rarely branching at base: tubercles
ovate-cylindrical, 8 to 14 mm. long, with axillary
bristle-bearing wool, at length naked: radial spines 30 to 60, in
two series, the exterior bristle-like, shorter and white, the
interior stouter, longer and dusky-tipped or purplish; central
spines 3 or 4, stouter, longer, brown or blackish from a paler
base, the upper 2 or 3 (10 to 14 mm. long) straight, or one or
two or even all hooked, the lower stouter and longer (12 to 18
mm.), hooked upwards: flowers about 2.5 cm. long: fruit 1 to 2.5
cm. long: seeds large (1.2 to 1.5 mm. in diameter), globose and
wrinkled, partly immersed in a brown spongy or corky cup-shaped
3-lobed appendage. (Ill. Cact. Mex. Bound. t. 7) Type, Parry of
1850, but modified by Le Conte 14 and Bigelow of 1854, all in
Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard.
Gravelly soil and sandy stream-banks, from the eastern slopes of
the mountains of southern California, throughout western Arizona
and southern Nevada to southern Utah; referred also to "N. W.
Mexico" by Hemsley (Biol. Centr.-Amer.).
Specimens examined: California (Parry of 1850; Newberry of 1858;
Parish of 1882): Arizona (Le Conte 14; Bigelow of 1854; Dr. Loew
of 1875: also Palmer of 1870, but with no locality.
In the original description this species was confounded with C.
grahami, with which it grows and which it much resembles; and
this, together with the fact that 4 central hooked spines are
seldom found, induced Dr. Engelmann (Syn. Cact. 262) to propose
the more appropriate but untenable name M. phellosperma. The
resemblance to C. grahami is not so close as general appearance
would indicate, as the more oblong or cylindrical form, longer
and less crowded tubercles, more numerous spines, often more than
one hooked central, large seeds, and remarkable seed appendages
serve well to distinguish it.
++ Plants with fasciculate slender cylindrical stems (30 to 45
cm. high, and 2.5 to 6 cm. in diameter): Lower Californian.