My little thimble cactus has lots of open flowers at this time. I had this one out back, but it is now in the courtyard because of the construction. It didn’t seem to mind the transition though, since the tiny flowers continue to open. Click on the image to enlarge.
The official botanical name of this cactus is Mammillaria fragilis. Here’s some information I found on the web at PlantOfTheWeek.org:
Mammillaria fragilis, or Thimble Cactus, is a clump-forming cactus native to Central Mexico. The clumps can exceed 12 inches (30 cm) in width in containers. Stems are up to 1 inch thick and are easily disarticulated. Tubercles are in 5-8 spirals with 12-16 white, radial spines, which are needle shaped and up to 5 mm long. The central spine are brown at the tips, pointed outward and very stout. This cactus is an easy one to grow and very showy in containers.
Blooming: In the greenhouse, our specimen blooms from late summer into fall, with very small pale yellow flowers about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) long.
I can say that outdoors in the Arizona high desert that our specimen starts blooming in April.
That one’s a real cutie. I have one, too. Maybe more. After all, that’s why it’s named “fragilis”. 🙂
This is one I need to re-pot, or put into the ground, soon.