Common Name: spinystar

Duration: Perennial

Protected Status: No status in Arizona.

General: Stems solitary to numerous, forming mounds 30-60 cm in diameter, the stems depressed to cylindric, 2-5 cm long and 2-5 cm wide. The ribs inconspicuous with tubercles 6-9 mm, grooved on upper surface from areole to base.

Spines: The spines dense with 3-12 central spines, the lower one turned downward, red and relatively dark-colored or basally white, 1-2 cm long and prominent among the radials, bearing 12-40 white radial spines, these 9-25 mm, slender, straight.

Flowers: Bisexual, sessile and radial, 2.5-5 cm diameter, the tepals straw yellow, yellow-green, pink, magenta, to purplish. The inner tepals narrowly lanceolate-subulate, 1.5-2 cm long, 2 mm wide, with the other perianth parts ciliate, bearing many stamens.

Fruits: Green berry 1-2 cm long, elliptic in outline, becoming dry, sometimes with a few scales and a persistent perianth.

Ecology: Found in sandy to rocky soils, especially limestone, of grasslands and woodlands from 1,000-8,000 ft (305-2438 m).

Notes: The lower central spine that turns downward helps to distinguished this variety.

Ethnobotany: The fruit is eaten raw and boiled, and is useful in small amounts against diarrhea.

Etymology: Coryphantha is from the Greek koryphe, for summit or crown, and anthos for flower, referring to the way the flowers crown the stem, while vivipara means bearing plantlets or bulblets on the leaves or in the inflorescence of the parent plant.

Synonyms: None, conflicting information whether this is a segregate taxa.

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2010