Cochemiea barbata grows either solitary or with multiple heads, forming dense cushions. The plant bodies are depressed, spherical to briefly cylindrical, and about 3 to 4 cm (1.2 to 1.6 in) in diameter. The soft, spherical to cylindrical warts lack milky juice. The axillae are naked. The 1 to 4 central spines are stiff, brown to reddish-brown or orange-brown, and up to 2 cm (0.79 in) long, with 1 or 2 being heavily hooked. The 16 to 60 marginal spines are in several rows, mostly hairy, whitish to yellowish with darker tips, and 0.6 to 0.8 cm (0.24 to 0.31 in) long.
The flowers are 1.5 to 3 cm (0.59 to 1.18 in) long and wide, varying in color from white, light pink to yellowish, pink to orange, or brownish to greenish. The outer perianth segments are ciliated. The elongated fruits are green to purple or dark red, up to 1 cm (0.39 in) in diameter, and contain dark reddish-brown seeds.[18][19]
Distribution
Cochemiea barbata is found in Arizona, and New Mexico, USA, and Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango, Mexico in mountainous locations in the Sierra Madre Occidental.[20]
Taxonomy
First described as Mammillaria barbata by George Engelmann in 1848, the specific epithet "barbata" is Latin for "bearded", referring to the ciliated perianth segments.[21] Alexander Borissovitch Doweld reclassified it to the genus Cochemiea in 2000.
^Laferrière, Joseph E., Charles W. Weber and Edwin A. Kohlhepp. 1991. Use and nutritional composition of some traditional Mountain Pima plant foods. Journal of Ethnobiology 11(1):93-114.
^Anderson, Edward F. (2011). Das große Kakteen-Lexikon (in German). Stuttgart (Hohenheim): Ulmer. p. 370. ISBN978-3-8001-5964-2.
^Laferrière, Joseph E. 1994b. Vegetation and flora of the Mountain Pima village of Nabogame, Chihuahua, Mexico. Phytologia 77:102-140.
^Britton, Nathaniel Lord; Eaton, Mary E.; Rose, J. N.; Wood, Helen Adelaide (1919). The Cactaceae : descriptions and illustrations of plants of the cactus family. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington. pp. 144–145. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.46288.
