Anyone know what to call this tiny cactus? Sorry the picture quality is not the best.

Hi Baja,

I'd say a Mammillaria for sure, but after that I would need to do some digging. For now I can say compare to M. elongata, M. laui, and M. vetula and its supspecies. Not sure it is any of those but it shows similarities in some way to each. If you think it is not those I would have to start digging in the books I have, and I am not sure when I will have the time for that, busy work week, and my dad will be visiting from the Netherlands starting Thursday.

It looks like Mammillaria to me also but I have some questions.

I think there are tubercles under all those spines. If so, can you see the base of the tubercles? There should be a little spot or tuft or.. were the flowers are originating.

The flowers always grow on last years growth so generally in a ring around the top of each 'ball' in the cluster.

Are there hooks on the ends of any of those spines that you can feel when you slide you finger off the tip of a spine?

Is this growing wild?

Daisy

Thank you both. I agree it is probably Mammillaria. There's no way to see through the spines to the body of the plant. No hooks. It is quite small (the rocks are pumice chunks in the range of a quarter to a half an inch). This plant was a gift from a traveler, bought at a nursery. I think probably not elongata just because of the size (and the ease of propagating that plant from cuttings). It's hard to know if it's just young or really small (maybe both) but given it's flowering, I would imagine the second. I will have to spend some time looking at the different Mammillarias to try to sort them all out.

Check out Mammillaria lasiacantha