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A small, slender, sprawling or clustering cactus from Mexico, sometimes called the thumb cactus, grown for its pale spines and small reddish-purple flowers. Keep it dry and bright, as with most mammillarias.
Mammillaria matudae, commonly known as the thumb cactus, is a species of cactus from Mexico. It was named after the botanist Eizi Matuda.
Mammillaria matudae is a succulent subshrub. It grows either solitarily or in clusters from its base. Its cylindrical stems are slender, reaching 10–20 cm in height and about 3 cm in diameter, and have a sprawling or creeping habit. A variety, described as var. serpentiformis but no longer separately recognized, can grow up to a meter long and 7 cm wide. The axils are smooth and bare. It features 18–20 delicate, translucent white radial spines, each just 2–3 mm long. A single central spine (two in the untypified var. serpentiformis fa. duocentralis) stands out, pinkish-white when young and aging to a dull white, measuring 4–5 mm. The flowers are small but striking, with pale reddish-purple petals, about 12 mm in length and width.
Mammillaria albicoma · Mammillaria albiflora · Mammillaria albilanata · Bernal Cactus · Mammillaria aureilanata · Mammillaria backebergiana · Mammillaria baumii · Mammillaria beneckei · Powder Puff Cactus · Mammillaria bombycina subsp. perezdelarosae · Mammillaria bombycina · Mammillaria brandegeei
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mammillaria matudae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
