Species
+

Mammillaria prolifera (Mill.) Haw.

Texas Nipple Cactus, Texas nipple cactus, West Indian Nipple-cactus, little candles

Climate known 62 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Mammillaria prolifera, commonly known as the Texas nipple-cactus, West Indian nipple-cactus, grape cactus, or hair-covered cactus, is a species of cactus native to North America. Three subspecies are currently recognized: M. prolifera subsp. prolifera, M. prolifera subsp. arachnoidea (Mexico), and M. prolifera subsp. texana. The subspecies differ in overall size, the number and color of the spines, and the shape and color of the flowers. The plant's round or slightly elongated stems usually form small, dense clusters, and flowers are commonly born alongside fruit. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Mammillaria prolifera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Mammillaria

Mammillaria is one of the largest genera in the cactus family (Cactaceae), with currently about 170 to 190 accepted species and around 99 subspecies. Most of the mammillarias are native to Mexico, while some come from the Southwestern United States, the Caribbean, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Venezuela. The common name "pincushion cactus" refers to this genus and the closely related Escobaria.

Text from Wikipedia, “Mammillaria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Mill.) Haw.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Northeast, Cuba +2
Wild records
543 in range· 149 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
693mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Sep 129 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Mammillaria, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 693 mm a year, wettest September at 129 mm, driest February at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cactus proliferus Mill.; Cactus proliferus var. mammillaris (Mill.) Aiton; Mammillaria prolifera var. prolifera.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Mammillaria, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (522 mm of 693 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 693 mm a year, wettest September at 129 mm, driest February at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

693 mm a year at the habitat, 522 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 129 mm, driest February at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 506 mm to 1097 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 6.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.3 °C, the absolute minimum -1.7 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.7 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 31.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Aug; mean night from 10 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 693 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 237 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 23–43RH 57–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 237 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 17–2723 / 19–2726 / 22–2929 / 25–3130 / 27–3331 / 27–3431 / 26–3532 / 27–3530 / 25–3227 / 23–3024 / 20–2821 / 17–28
Night °C10 / 6–2111 / 7–2114 / 10–2217 / 13–2220 / 16–2422 / 17–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2621 / 16–2517 / 13–2413 / 10–2310 / 6–22
Rain mm29 / 20–4222 / 14–4625 / 13–5849 / 32–6879 / 48–13184 / 53–11876 / 47–11783 / 49–120129 / 75–20271 / 46–13424 / 15–7222 / 14–48
DLI24 / 20–3029 / 25–3536 / 31–4040 / 37–4342 / 39–4343 / 41–4443 / 41–4441 / 40–4334 / 33–3930 / 27–3426 / 22–3023 / 19–29
RH %59 / 55–6258 / 54–6157 / 53–6157 / 52–6159 / 55–6360 / 56–6459 / 55–6459 / 54–6461 / 57–6661 / 57–6459 / 55–6359 / 55–62

Each figure is the median across the 237 grid cells holding the 434 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1295:1604 (25.225, -99.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 237 distinct grid cells holding the 434 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1295:1604 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_-100.000, lapse-corrected -922 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 375 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas, Mexico Northeast, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.608, -100.342 · in the densest population, 388 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 543 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 149 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 397 km away. 15 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 109 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 543 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mammillaria proliferaMammillaria proliferaMammillaria proliferaMammillaria proliferaMammillaria proliferaMammillaria proliferaMammillaria proliferaMammillaria prolifera

Photographs: (c) Ian McFaul, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Michelle W. (鍾偉瑋), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Turner Brockman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Mammillaria prolifera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Anatomical and morphological features of seedlings of some Cactoideae Eaton (Cactaceae Juss.) species
Halyna Kalashnyk, N. V. Nuzhyna, M. М. Gaidarzhy (2016) · Acta Agrobotanica
Growth and Survival of Endemic Cacti under Different Substrate Types and Sun Exposures for Their Optimal Establishment in Northeastern Mexico
Lidia Rosaura Salas Cruz, R. Foroughbakhch, Lourdes Díaz‐Jiménez, Ngangyo Heya Maginot (2018) · Diversity
Adiciones y correcciones a la flora alóctona de la provincia de Castellón: Cactáceas
Juan Ramón Vázquez Mora, Xavier Albiach Martí (2016) · Bouteloua
Germinación in vitro de cactáceas, utilizando zeolita como sustrato alternativo
Lidia Rosaura Salas Cruz, Rahim Foroughbackch-Pournabav, María de Lourdes Díaz-Jiménez, María Luisa Cárdenas-Ávila (2011) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Mammillaria 132 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 23 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.