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Description: Mammillaria marksiana is
solitary at first, later forming clumps.
Stem: Flattened globose, normally light green, becoming yellowish in
bright light (occasionally some specimens have a bright yellow colour).
In the wild it can grow up
to 6-10 cm high, 5-12 cm in diameter; however in
cultivation it can double in size. Milky sap present.
Tubercle
arrangement: With (usually) eight right-winding and 13 left-winding
visible contact
parastichies.
Tubercle: Pyramidal, weakly four-sided.
Axil: With lots of snow-white wool, particularly in the blooming
area.
Spines: Thin, needle-like, golden yellow to brown, difficult to
distinguish as centrals and radials, very variable in number, even
within the areoles of the same plant, generally 3 to 8 mm long,
depending on age and origin, younger plants have more spines (7-13),
older ones have less (2-5)
Flower: Diurnal, bright greenish yellow, 15 mm long and in
diameter. The flowers form in a ring pattern on the previous year’s
growth.
Blooming season (Europe): Late winter to early spring.
Fruit: Club shaped, greenish or purplish red, up to 20 mm
long, ripening in summer.
Seed: Small, brown.
Cultivation: An easy
and easily flowering species,
but not a fast grower,
that may make clumps given the best conditions. Some plants will offset, and
moderately large sized
clumps can be produced in a few years.
Water regularly in summer, but do not overwater (rot
prone). It shouldn't be watered from above as it would ruin the
fine wool. Use
a pot with good drainage and a
very porous potting media.
Keep dry in winter. Feed with a high
potassium fertilizer in summer. Avoid frost. Reputedly sensitive to low temperatures, but
less so if kept on the dry side prior to, and
during, cold weather. Outside afternoon shade,
inside it needs bright light, and some direct
sun. Tends to
get yellowish in strong light, which encourages flowering and heavy wool and
spine production.
Propagation: Division, direct sow after last
frost.
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Cultivation and Mail Sale 
