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Cochemiea wrightii

Cochemiea wrightii is a species of Cochemiea found in Mexico and the southern United States.

Last revised
Jul 19, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
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485 w
Citations
7
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Cochemiea wrightii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Embryophytes
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Spermatophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Genus: Cochemiea
Species:
C. wrightii
Binomial name
Cochemiea wrightii
(Engelm.) Doweld 2000
Synonyms
  • Cactus wrightii (Engelm.) Kuntze 1891
  • Chilita wrightii (Engelm.) Orcutt 1926
  • Ebnerella wrightii (Engelm.) Buxb. 1951
  • Fimbriatocactus wrightii (Engelm.) Guiggi 2023
  • Mammillaria wrightii Engelm. 1856
  • Neomammillaria wrightii (Engelm.) Britton & Rose 1923

Cochemiea wrightii is a species of Cochemiea found in Mexico and the southern United States.2

Description

Cochemiea wrightii grows as a solitary cactus with dark green, flattened, spherical to briefly cylindrical shoots measuring 3 to 8 cm (1.2 to 3.1 in) in diameter. The cylindrical warts do not produce milky juice, and the axillae are bare. It has up to 3 dark, hooked central spines, each 1 to 1.2 cm (0.39 to 0.47 in) long. There are also up to 12 whitish marginal spines, 8 to 12 millimeters long, with the upper ones being shorter and dark-tipped.

The flowers are magenta to bright purple, rarely white, and up to 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long and wide, with perianth segments that are reflexed. The egg-shaped to spherical fruits are purple, up to 2.5 cm (0.98 in) long, and contain black seeds.3

  • Fruit
    Fruit
  • Flower
    Flower

Distribution

Cochemiea wrightii is found in the US states of Arizona and New Mexico, and in the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua at elevations of 1,000 to 2,200 m (3,300 to 7,200 ft). Plants are found growing in sandy hills and grasslands growing among Echinocereus polyacanthus and Cochemiea saboae subsp. haudeana.4

Subspecies

Accepted subspecies:5

Image Name Distribution
Cochemiea wrightii subsp. wilcoxii (Toumey ex K.Schum.) Doweld Arizona to New Mexico and Mexico (Sonora, Chihuahua)
Cochemiea wrightii subsp. wrightii Arizona to Texas

Taxonomy

The species was first described as Mammillaria wrightii by George Engelmann in 1856.6 The specific epithet honors American botanist Charles Wright, who researched Texas and Cuba.7 In 2000, Alexander Borissovitch Doweld reclassified the species into the genus Cochemiea.

References

References

  1. Univ., Martin Terry (Sul Rose State; College, Kenneth Heil (San Juan; Mexico, New; Ambiental), Rafael Corral-Díaz (Consultor (2009-11-17). "The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
  2. "Cochemiea wrightii (Engelm.) Doweld". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  3. Anderson, Edward F. (2011). Das große Kakteen-Lexikon (in German). Stuttgart (Hohenheim): Ulmer. p. 415. ISBN 978-3-8001-5964-2.
  4. "Cochemiea wrightii". LLIFLE. 2013-08-04. Retrieved 2024-06-17. This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
  5. "Cochemiea wrightii Pfeiff". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2025-07-02.
  6. 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.
  7. Arts, American Academy of (1852). "Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Metcalf and Co. ISSN 0199-9818. Retrieved 2024-06-17.
External links