Mammillaria laui

Description

Mammillaria laui is a species of the genus Mammillaria in the cactus family(Cactaceae). The specific epithet honors the German cactus researcher Alfred Bernhard Lau. Mammillaria laui grows solitary, depressed or sprouting and becomes 6 inches tall and 4.5 inches in diameter. The close-set warts are bulbous - conical, non-milky and have a dark green color. The axillae are naked or sparsely wooled. The 30 to 40 fine-needled spines, which are only 4 to 8 millimeters long, are bristle-like, irregularly radiant, glassy-white and vorspreizend, while covering the body. The 5 to 8 center spines are barely thicker than the spines and only 6 to 7 millimeters long. They are also spreading, glassy yellow with a bulbous thickened foot. The flowersare wide-funneled and are about the same diameter 1.6 to 2 inches long. They have a bright carmine pink color. The whitish fruits are spherical to oblong and only 2 to 6 millimeters long. They contain black seeds