Mammillaria tetrancistra

Common fish hook cactus

Family: Cactaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Common fish hook cactus is a California native perennial found in desert bioregions in sandy hills, valleys, plains, and creosote-bush scrub at elevations of 130 to 1,400 meters. Flowering in April, this plant produces pink or rose-purple to lavender flowers 25 millimeters wide with long-fringed outer petals. Growing with a single cylindric stem 7 to 25 centimeters tall and 3.5 to 7.5 centimeters in diameter, it has soft stems with bristly tubercle axils. Its spines are distinctive, with 3 to 4 central spines per areole, including one or more hooked spines with dark tips, surrounded by 30 to 60 radial spines in 2 to 3 ranks. The fruit develops into a cylindric shape 15 to 32 millimeters long, with seeds featuring a corky tan aril.

Habitat: Sandy hills, valleys, plains, creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Apr

Elevation: 130-1400 m

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Inyo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.