View source for Mammillaria meiacantha

{{Treatment/ID
|accepted_name=Mammillaria meiacantha
|accepted_authority=Engelmann
|publications={{Treatment/Publication
|title=Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts
|place=3: 263. 1856
|year=1856
}}
|common_names=Nipple cactus
|basionyms=
|synonyms={{Treatment/ID/Synonym
|name=Mammillaria gummifera var. meiacantha
|authority=(Engelmann) L. D. Benson
}} {{Treatment/ID/Synonym
|name=Mammillaria heyderi var. meiacantha
|authority=(Engelmann) L. D. Benson
}} {{Treatment/ID/Synonym
|name=Mammillaria runyonii
|authority=(Britton & Rose) Boedeker
}}
|hierarchy=Cactaceae;Cactaceae subfam. Cactoideae;Mammillaria;Mammillaria meiacantha
|hierarchy_nav=<div class="higher-taxa"><div class="higher-taxon"><small>family</small>[[Cactaceae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>subfamily</small>[[Cactaceae subfam. Cactoideae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>genus</small>[[Mammillaria]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>species</small>[[Mammillaria meiacantha]]</div></div>
|volume=Volume 4
|mention_page=page 249
|treatment_page=page 256
}}<!--

--><span class="statement" id="st-undefined" data-properties=""><b>Plants </b>unbranched. <b>Roots</b> short, obconic taproots; secondary roots diffuse. <b>Stems</b> flat-topped (in old age or under dense brush aerial portion of stem hemispheric), 10 × 8–10(–30) cm, firm; tubercles 8–17 × 4–11 mm; axils bearing (at least seasonally) woolly tufts, wool 3–5 mm, bristles absent; cortex and pith not mucilaginous; latex abundant in healthy tissue throughout cortex of stem, tubercles, and sometimes flower receptacle, sticky, white. <b>Spines</b> (6–)7–8(–10) per areole, white, reddish brown, gray, or yellowish, glabrous; radial spines (5–)6–7(–9) per areole, largest spines reddish brown, gray, or yellowish, tips blackish or dark brown, needlelike, 6.5–13.5 × 0.3–0.6 mm, stiff; central spines (0–)1 per areole, usually ascending and inconspicuous against radial spines, sometimes porrect, straight or slightly curved, largest spines (3–)5–12 × 0.3–0.7 mm; subcentral spines 0. <b>Flowers</b> 2.5–3.5 × 1.9–3.5(–4.4) cm; outermost tepal margins entire; inner tepals white to pale pink, often with pink or lavender midstripes, 8–15 mm; stigma lobes light green, 3–5 mm. <b>Fruits</b> purplish pink, clavate to obovoid, 20–32 mm, juicy only in fruit walls; floral remnant weakly persistent. <b>Seeds</b> reddish brown, 1.1–1.2 mm; pitted; testa leathery to hard, anticlinal cell walls strongly undulate, interstices much narrower than pit diam., pits deeply concave, elongate. <b>2n</b> = 22.</span><!--

-->{{Treatment/Body
|phenology=Flowering Mar–May(-Jun); fruiting Oct–Mar.
|habitat=Great Plains grasslands, pine-oak woodlands, ecotone between Chihuahuan desert scrub adjacent more mesic habitats
|elevation=900-2500 m
|distribution=N.Mex.;Tex.;Mexico.
|discussion=<p><i>Mammillaria meiacantha</i> is regionally sympatric with both varieties of <i>M. heyderi</i>, without resulting in hybridization. West of the Rio Grande, reports of <i>M. meiacantha</i> probably are misidentifications of <i>M. heyderi </i>var.<i> bullingtoniana</i>. <i>Mammillaria meiacantha</i> has not been documented for Arizona.</p>
|tables=
|references=
}}<!--

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-->{{#Taxon:
name=Mammillaria meiacantha
|author=
|authority=Engelmann
|rank=species
|parent rank=genus
|synonyms=Mammillaria gummifera var. meiacantha;Mammillaria heyderi var. meiacantha;Mammillaria runyonii
|basionyms=
|family=Cactaceae
|phenology=Flowering Mar–May(-Jun); fruiting Oct–Mar.
|habitat=Great Plains grasslands, pine-oak woodlands, ecotone between Chihuahuan desert scrub adjacent more mesic habitats
|elevation=900-2500 m
|distribution=N.Mex.;Tex.;Mexico.
|reference=None
|publication title=Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts
|publication year=1856
|special status=
|source xml=https://jpend@bitbucket.org/aafc-mbb/fna-data-curation.git/src/f6b125a955440c0872999024f038d74684f65921/coarse_grained_fna_xml/V4/V4_471.xml
|subfamily=Cactaceae subfam. Cactoideae
|genus=Mammillaria
|species=Mammillaria meiacantha
}}<!--

-->[[Category:Treatment]][[Category:Mammillaria]]