BCSS - Forum

I have these lovely little guy flower in March


2 month has been past.


I can see the fruit hidden between Tubercle.
How can i know if the fruit is ripen ? Do they sunken in the stem like M.luethyi does ?

According to Illiffe:-

"Fruit: Green, club shaped, 2 mm long and wide.
Seed: Brownish black, 1 mm long and 0.6 mm wide."

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... dersoniana

Two millimeters long and wide would be a pretty small fruit unless it was an embedded one and that's all that projected. I presume that is a mistake for 2cm as 2x2 millimeters would hardly be club shaped? However another site says red for perezdelarosae, so even how accurate green is I do not know

Two months isn't long for Mammillaria fruit to ripen. I'm trying to think when I've seen them on M. andersoniana but maybe I haven't because they're so small. It is common for spring-flowering species to develop fruit late in the year and they often have fruit and flowers at the same time.

Did you pollinate your plants by hand? Insects don't always oblige. I can see the dead flowers but nothing I'd identify as a fruit. The seed is usually ripe once the fruit starts to dry up.

to DaveW:
i have 3 individual plant 1 has grape-red fruit other 2 has green fruit.

to iann :
i do hand pollinate cross between 3 plant.
I't my first time growing Mamm did;t know it take that long to ripen.
Guess i just need to be more patient thanks.


I know these are fruit. Cut one open before full of unripen seed.

What you show in the photo just looks like dead flowers to me. Break them open and there are things inside that may or may not be seeds, only time will tell. Mammillaria fruit are juicy, usually bright colours when ripe but sometimes green or dull.

I've been tickling mine and I'll keep a close eye out to see what happens. Don't hold your breath, there probably won't be anything to report for many months.

Some up date.These turn out to be fruit.
I was impaction so i cut one open in may it contain white unripe seed.
I miserably lost entire fruit just because i can't wait.

Today i check them again find some fruit seems to be shrinking and turn into paperish dry.
A good indicator that it has ripen.

with my tweezer i successful pick up 1 ripen fruit.


I poke my second plant with tweezer. Some cap-like structure fall off from fruit and exposing seed.


look like the seed has ripen but still embody inside mother plant.
Typical Cryptocarpic .

My conclusion is :
1. the fruit take full 3 month to ripen.
2.there is very little to no sigh of ripen. No red big fruit No enlogent. Just quietly ripen.
3.Some individual exhibit Cryptocarpic that is the ripen fruit is keep inside mother plant.
4.For some individual, the ripen fruit can be pick up as whole with tweezer.
5.Harvest are easier to deal with then other Cryptocarpic cactus.

Very useful information, thanks!

Excellent, nice to have the information that M. andersonii is in fact cryptocarpic, which adds one more to the list. Strange then that it was easier to obtain seed of M. andersonii from some seedsmen than the other cryptocarpic cacti?

I wonder if the seed is dry you could extract them by sucking them out with a Pooter having a small nozzle? For those who don't know what a Pooter is, it is in essence a "mouth powered vacuum cleaner" originally for collecting insects in the field, but ideal for extracting cactus seeds from between the spines that have spilt from the fruits onto the crown of the plant, either in the greenhouse or in habitat.

Here's how to make a simple one. Don't forget the gauze or muslin over the tube you suck though though or you may swallow the seeds.

http://www.discoverwildlife.com/british ... ake-pooter

Evidently you have to get your parents to supervise you for this one, which is impossible at my age!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHv7ur8Yoks

yes they are relatively easy to harvest compare to strictly cryptocarpic cactus like M.luthyi.

Some fruit can be harvest as whole. Without the need to dig individual seed.I can dig entire fruit out.

I will say that cryptocarpic has different degree. From deeply hidden to only partially hidden.

Mammillaria andersoniana is the partially hidden one. Some fruit are cryptocarpic some don't and can be harvest relatively easy.

When i dig up my seed the fruit is still fresh so the seed was still attached.
I think nozzle can suck it but won;t be as easy as Strombocactus sine they still connect to fruit.I will make a nozzle and try it in next harvest.

Here is a diagram i draw. They are more close to surface and less crpto then other cryptocarpic cactus