All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Enciclopedia of Cacti. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.

Mammillaria bocasana is a fast-growing cactus covered with clusters of silky white hairs, with each cluster surrounding a yellow-to-red hooked spine. The spines are used to make fishhooks in Mexico.
 

Description: Clumping cactus.
Stems: Blue-green, up to 6 cm in diameter, spherical, sometimes becoming somewhat cylindrical.
Spines: Radials 30 - 50, white, hair-like, 8 - 20 mm long, one (occasionally two) hooked. Centrals 1 - 7, reddish brown, 5 - 10 mm  long.
Flower: Funnel-form, creamy white to pinkish, 13 - 22 mm (0.5 - 0.9 in) long, up to 15 mm (0.6 in) in diameter, in spring and summer.
Fruit: Cylindrical, rosy-pink to red, 2,5 cm long in summer.
 

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Scientific Name: Mammillaria bocasana ssp bocasana
First description by Poselger, Allg. Gartenz 21: 94 (1853)

Common name: Powder Puff Cactus, snowball cactus; powder-puff cactus; fishhooks.

Origin: Central Mexico (San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Queretaro states) Altitude 1.750 - 2.300 m

Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.

Note: Several cultivars exist, with varying quantities of wool, and flower colors. The plants sold as 'forma multilanata' are very woolly, with yellowish flowers.

Synonyms:

• Ebnerella haehneliana,
• Mammillaria seideliana,
• Chilita kunzeana,
• Mammillaria bocasana var. kunzeana,
• Neomammillaria kunzeana,
• Ebnerella kunzeana,
• Mammillaria kunzeana,
• Chilita knebeliana,
• Chilita haehneliana,
• Mammillaria knebeliana,
• Mammillaria haehneliana,
• Ebnerella bocasana,
• Chilita bocasana,
• Neomammillaria bocasana,
• Ebnerella knebeliana
• Mammillaria bocasana var splendens Hort
• Mammillaria bocasana var multilanata Hort

This is one of the easiest species to grow, with lots of cream-white or pinkish flowers blooming abundantly in spring.

Cultivation: It is a  rapidly growing  species.  Water regularly in summer, but do not over-water (rot prone).  Use pot with good drainage and a very porous potting media. Keep dry in winter. Feed with a high potassium fertilizer in summer. It is quite frost resistant if kept dry, hardy as low as -5° C (some reports give it hardy to -12°C).  Outside full sun or afternoon shade, inside it needs bright light, and some direct sun.
Easily clustering and easily flowered. Most plants will offset readily, and clumps can be produced in a very few years.

Propagation: Direct sow after last frost (usually) or division, wait until the offsets that appear at the base of old clustered specimens are 1/3 the size of the parent and then detach and plant.
 

Photo of conspecific taxa, varieties, forms and cultivars of Mammillaria bocasana.

All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Enciclopedia of Cacti. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.