Ferocactus mathssonii

Ferocactus mathssonii is a solitary cactus with attractive hooked central spines, occasionally branching from the base. Its flowers are a unique coppery color. The stems are flattened globular to egg-shaped, green to bluish-green with a grey glaucescence, up to {{cvt|15|cm}} tall and {{cvt|8|cm}} wide, with 9-13 prominent ribs and strongly tubercles, approximately 6-{{cvt|9|mm}} broad and 9-{{cvt|15|mm}} tall. Areoles are roundish, around 2-{{cvt|2.5|mm}} apart, 3-{{cvt|5|mm}} in diameter, with greyish-yellowish wool, and 1-4 curving, prominently hooked central spines that are 5-{{cvt|9|cm}} long and 1-{{cvt|1.5|mm}} wide, along with 3-8 radial spines. The spines are strong, tannish-white to greyish-pink or purple, slightly flattened, and do not obscure the stem. The plant produces several buds in spirals at the apex, with usually 3-5 or more flowers opening at a time. The flowers are cylindrical to funnel shaped, 2-{{cvt|4|cm}} long and 2-{{cvt|3|cm}} wide, with inner petals tannish to brick red, and outer tepals with brownish midribs. Filaments are yellow or maroon, up to {{cvt|6|mm}} long, with yellow anthers. The style is {{cvt|1.2|cm}} long, reddish, with stigma lobes 10-14, yellow or orange. The pericarpel has toothed scales up to {{cvt|6|mm}} long. The plant blooms from March to May, with flowers opening in the morning and closing partially at night, reopening for 2-3 days. Fruits are 1.5-{{cvt|2.5|cm}} long, ovate to globose, fleshy, red, with black seeds that are 1.3-{{cvt|1.5|mm}} long.{{cite web | title=Ferocactus mathssonii | website=LLIFLE | date=2013-08-04 | url=http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACTI/Family/Cactaceae/3485/Ferocactus_mathssonii | ref={{sfnref |

LLIFLE | 2013}} | access-date=2024-04-22}}{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=bysa3|from this source=yes}}

It grows in desert hills and flats, often on limestone-rich substrates, among desert shrubs or in open grassland, usually near grass clumps in Guanajuato to San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

The plant was first published without a description by Karl Moritz Schumann as Echinocereus mathssonii in 1893.{{cite book | last1=Britton | first1=N.L. | last2=Rose | first2=J.N. | title=The Cactaceae: Descriptions and Illustrations of Plants of the Cactus Family | publisher=Dover Publications, Incorporated | issue=v. 3 | year=1963 | isbn=978-0-486-21192-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vYIbDkAHgSEC&pg=PA144 | access-date=2024-04-22 | page=144}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Ferocactus mathssonii|Ferocactus mathssonii}}
• {{Wikispecies-inline|Ferocactus mathssonii|Ferocactus mathssonii}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q109341463}}

mathssonii

Category:Cacti of Mexico

Category:Plants described in 1979