Mammillaria gigantea is a cactus that grows low and almost cake-shaped, often slightly sunken at the top, and covered in white wool felt. Its blue-green body is 9 to 10 cm high and 15 to 17 cm in diameter, with densely packed warts that produce milky juice. The axillae are covered with white wool. It has up to 12 small, fine-needle, straight white radial spines, each up to 3 mm long, and 4 to 6 strong, usually curved central spines, with the lowest one reaching up to 2 cm. New central spines are yellow-brown with dark tips, later becoming yellowish, white to horn-colored, and reddish at the base.
As with all Mammillaria, the flowers appear in a wreath. They are green-yellow and about 15 mm in diameter. The fruits are pink to greenish, and the seeds are brown.[2]
Mammillaria gigantea is found in the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Durango, San Luis Potosí, and Querétaro, at altitudes between 1750 and 2400 meters.[3]
It was first described in 1898 by Karl Moritz Schumann.[4] The specific epithet "gigantea" comes from Latin and means "enormously large," referring to the plant's size.[5]
^Britton, Nathaniel Lord; Eaton, Mary E.; Rose, J. N.; Wood, Helen Adelaide (1919). The Cactaceae : descriptions and illustrations of plants of the cactus family. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.46288.
^Schumann, Karl Moritz; Hirscht, Karl. (1899). Gesamtbeschreibung der Kakteen (Monographia cactacearum) /von Karl Schumann. Neudamm [Dębno, Poland?]: J. Neumann. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.10394.
Media related to Mammillaria gigantea at Wikimedia Commons
Data related to Mammillaria gigantea at Wikispecies
