Ferocactus mathssonii is a species of Ferocactus found in Mexico.[1]
Ferocactus mathssonii is a solitary cactus with attractive hooked central spines, occasionally branching from the base. Its flowers are a unique coppery color. The stems are flattened globular to egg-shaped, green to bluish-green with a grey glaucescence, up to tall and wide, with 9-13 prominent ribs and strongly tubercles, approximately 6- broad and 9- tall. Areoles are roundish, around 2- apart, 3- in diameter, with greyish-yellowish wool, and 1-4 curving, prominently hooked central spines that are 5- long and 1- wide, along with 3-8 radial spines. The spines are strong, tannish-white to greyish-pink or purple, slightly flattened, and do not obscure the stem. The plant produces several buds in spirals at the apex, with usually 3-5 or more flowers opening at a time. The flowers are cylindrical to funnel shaped, 2- long and 2- wide, with inner petals tannish to brick red, and outer tepals with brownish midribs. Filaments are yellow or maroon, up to long, with yellow anthers. The style is long, reddish, with stigma lobes 10-14, yellow or orange. The pericarpel has toothed scales up to long. The plant blooms from March to May, with flowers opening in the morning and closing partially at night, reopening for 2-3 days. Fruits are 1.5- long, ovate to globose, fleshy, red, with black seeds that are 1.3- long.[2]
It grows in desert hills and flats, often on limestone-rich substrates, among desert shrubs or in open grassland, usually near grass clumps in Guanajuato to San Luis PotosÃ, Mexico.
The plant was first published without a description by Karl Moritz Schumann as Echinocereus mathssonii in 1893.[3]