Cochemiea mazatlanensis
Cochemiea mazatlanensis is a species of Cochemiea found in Mexico.
Description
This species is characterized by its short, columnar, grayish-green stems that branch from the base, creating larger, clump-forming structures. Individual stems typically measure between 4 and in length and in diameter. The surface of these stems is adorned with conical tubercles, each about long and arranged in a spiral pattern. Notably, these tubercles do not produce milky sap. The spaces between the tubercles are generally bare, though they may occasionally bear one or two short bristles. Atop each tubercle sits an areole, with spines. These areoles typically carry 1 to 4 central spines that are reddish-brown, long, and sometimes hooked and 12 to 18 radial spines that are white, straight, and long. The cactus produces tubular flowers that are carmine to purplish-pink in color, measuring approximately long and in diameter. These flowers are self-sterile, meaning they require pollen from another plant to produce fruit. The resulting fruits are reddish-yellow or brown and contain black seeds.
Distribution
The plant is found growing in desert hills, dunes, and dry scrub biomes in the Mexican states of Colima, Jalisco, Michoacan, Nayarit, Sinaloa and southern Sonora between sea level and 500 meters. Plants are found growing along with Stenocereus kerberi , Echinocereus subinermis subsp. ochoterenae, Mammillaria beneckei, Mammillaria bocensis, Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, Opuntia decumbens, Stenocereus thurberi, Stenocereus alamosensis , Pilosocereus purpusii, Pilosocereus alensis and Acanthocereus tetragonus.
Taxonomy
The plant was originally described as Mammillaria mazatlanensis in 1901 by German botanist Karl Moritz Schumann, who named it after Mazatlan, Sinaloa where the plant first collected. In 2022, botanists David Aquino and Daniel Sánchez reclassified the species into the genus Cochemiea, establishing its current scientific name, Cochemiea mazatlanensis.