Cochemiea barbataEngelm. in Wisliz., Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico: connected with Col. Doniphan's Expedition in 1846 and 1847 105–106. 1848. is a small cactus native to Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango, with the common name greenflower nipple cactus.
Description Cochemiea barbata grows either solitary or with multiple heads, forming dense cushions. The plant bodies are depressed, spherical to briefly cylindrical, and about 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 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 long.
The flowers are 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 in diameter, and contain dark reddish-brown seeds.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.
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.Laferrière, Joseph E. 1994b. Vegetation and flora of the Mountain Pima village of Nabogame, Chihuahua, Mexico. Phytologia 77:102-140.
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. Alexander Borissovitch Doweld reclassified it to the genus Cochemiea in 2000.
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