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.

 A very odd plant with colourful spines.
 

What is this plant? This rare and unusual cactus was labelled as an improbable but stricking hybrid between a Dolichothele longimamma and Mammillaria spinosissima cv. UN PICO, however the plant is presumably a monstrous form of Mammillaria of an unknown Mammillaria species.

This plant is also very similar (but not the same) to Toumeya papyracantha x Echinocereus knippelianus hybrid, actually this second species has more flattened, curved and shorter central spines, and more thin white radial spines per areole. Furthermore the "Toumeya papyracantha x Echinocereus knippelianus hybrid" has swollen pink roots and its flesh is pink too.

Description: Clustering matforming.
Stem: 4 to 5cm wide, up to 4 cm tall, flattened and soft.
Ribs: Vertical or spiralling formed by a row of elongated tubercles.
Central spines: Bright orange and yellow, flexible with a slightly bent tip, but not hooked. They are also a little flat and not pungent.
Radial spines: Very few (often absent) glassy white, bristly.
Roots: Tuberose, juicy.
Flowers: Pink in a ring around the crown. They usually fail to open completely.
 

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Origin:  Garden origin (Nursery produced hybrid)

Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.
 

Toumeya x knippelianus hybr. (left) & Dolichotele x Un Pico hybr. (Right)
This two similar cultivars are often confused but they are not the same.
 

Central spines  are cremy-yellow with bright orange-red tips, flexible with a bent tip, but not hooked. They are also somehow flat a very uncommon feature for a Mammillaria. Radials are very few, thin and  bristly and white.

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.