A single flower opened on this little cactus last week. Today, it has five beautiful pink flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
I found this reference to the little cacti that dot the hill behind our house at BirdandHike.com:
Common Fishhook Cactus (Mammillaria tetrancistra) is a small, mound-shaped cactus with short, thin white spines that nearly cover the plant plus longer, darker, fish-hook shaped spines that stand out from the body of the plant. In early summer, red to lavender flowers emerge from the side of the stem that are nearly as large as the entire plant.
Looks like it’s doing well, Damsel. Congrats!
I’ve never seen red flowers on these before; they’ve always been pink, maybe going to lavender on some individuals. They grow in the hills around the Coachella Valley as well as Wickenburg. I have one that put out two branches, and then the main stem rotted. I was able to save and reroot the two branches, and now they’re near full sized, and flowering a lot.
I know we have these on the hill behind the house, but I haven’t seen any blooms from them yet. They’d be easy to spot I’d think.They’re beautiful. No fragrance though.