Neolloydia conoidea

Name and species circumscription

POWO accepts Neolloydia conoidea (formerly Mammillaria conoidea, also Cochemiea conoidea in the 2021 analysis). In this treatment, N. ceratites, N. grandiflora and N. texensis remain synonyms. The 2025 revision by Moredia-Rosete and colleagues narrows the species by separating N. ceratites again. Material of this last group is described separately in the section on variation. [2-WWW] [Moredia-Rosete et al. 2025, POWO, as of 11 October 2026. Moredia-Rosete et al., p. 761] [Breslin et al. 2021, POWO, as of 11 October 2026. Moredia-Rosete et al., p. 761]

Stem, areoles and spine variation

In the description of material from Tolimán, the stem is initially globose and solitary and may branch with age. The authors give a height of 7–10 cm and a diameter of 5–7 cm, a light green to grey-green surface and spiral rows of tubercles. In their study, flowers appeared on plants taller than 4 cm. This is the size threshold observed in that population. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, p. 30. Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2019, p. 581] [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2019, Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, p. 30. Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2019, p. 581]

In the 2025 revision's treatment, central spines usually project away from the stem and number two or three, with specimens having from zero to four. Areoles are elliptical to obovate, with spaces between the tubercles. The authors confirmed that characters of specimens formerly called N. texensis and N. grandiflora overlap with the other N. conoidea material. Spine number and growth form therefore need to be assessed together with plant origin. [Moredia-Rosete et al. 2025, p. 761, Table 5 on p. 767, key on p. 772]

The group identified in the revision as N. ceratites usually has six or seven central spines, up to eight, and more closely packed tubercles. The authors analysed it as a separate species. Under the current POWO circumscription, it falls within N. conoidea (called N. ceratites in the 2025 study). This distinction preserves the actual variation without creating two accounts for the same accepted taxon. [Moredia-Rosete et al. 2025, p. 761, Table 5 on p. 767] [2-WWW]

Range and environment

POWO gives a range from western Texas to northeastern Mexico, reaching Veracruz. Reproductive studies were conducted in Tolimán, Querétaro, at the southern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, at an elevation of 1400 m. The plants grew in small-leaved xerophytic scrub on a calcareous substrate with siltstone outcrops. This environment also included Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus and other low cacti. [2-WWW] [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, pp. 29–30]

In the region described, rainfall occurs mainly in the warmer part of the year. The authors give an annual total of 380–470 mm, with greater rainfall from May to October. In year-long monitoring, bud formation in N. conoidea was positively correlated with temperature, relative humidity and rainfall in the same month. These relationships describe conditions changing together in the field. They do not establish the separate effect of each factor. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, p. 30, 32]

The broader 2025 revision places N. conoidea in five ecoregions. It identifies both karst sites with shallow, stony soils and environments with other substrates. This is a broader ecological range than the description of a single site in Querétaro. Soil characterisation in this paper relies on map layers, so it is not a comparison of potting mixtures. [Moredia-Rosete et al. 2025, pp. 756, 764, Table 5 on p. 767]

Two days of flower activity

Flowers in the population studied opened around 9–10 h and closed around 14–15 h. Activity usually lasted two days. At the beginning of the first day, the anthers released pollen, while the stigmas became receptive later. The authors described this as partial protandry. The stigmas were above the highest anthers, creating spatial separation between the organs. Near the end of the second day, their bending could bring them into contact with the anthers. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, p. 31–32]

Measurements of 20 flowers from different individuals gave a mean perianth diameter of 3.66 cm and flower length of 3.02 cm. There were a mean of 58.69 ovules per ovary. The fruit was described as pale, grey-green or green, ovoid and opening at maturity. Two days of flower opening provide several periods of insect contact, but successful seed production also depends on the origin of the pollen delivered. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, p. 30–32, tabela 1]

Cross-pollination and seed number

Four treatments, each with 20 flowers from different plants, compared open pollination, hand cross-pollination, hand self-pollination and spontaneous self-pollination under isolation. Fruits developed from 90%, 95%, 0% and 0% of flowers, respectively. In this sample, N. conoidea required pollen from another plant. Hand cross-pollination increased the proportion of ovules developing into seeds from 0.73 to 0.96, with a similar proportion of flowers producing fruits. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, pp. 32, 34–35, Table 3]

Flowers were visited by the honeybee Apis mellifera and bees of Augochlora and Lasioglossum. These insects touched the reproductive organs during visits. Ants, beetles and wasps were also observed, moving differently within the flower. The authors did not test the effectiveness of a single visit by each group, so visit counts remain a measure of insect activity, while the pollination experiment provides separate information on seed production. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2021, p. 31, 33–35]

Flowering in successive pulses

Weekly censuses in 2015 and 2016 recorded 146 and 142 flowering plants, respectively. Flowering from March to September comprised six pulses in the first year and five in the second, separated by periods when no flowers were observed. More than one flowering episode occurred in 81% of plants in 2015 and 73% in 2016. Synchrony indices were low, and greater coincidence of flowering times was not consistently associated with higher proportions of fruits and seeds. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2019, p. 581–585, tabele 1–3]

The authors proposed that repeated flowering may spread risks from weather, florivory and pollinator availability across several times in the season. This is a functional hypothesis based on observations. The study covered two years and one population, and the benefits of this strategy across a long series of seasons were not measured. [Arroyo-Pérez et al. 2019, p. 585]

Related articles

Materials from the author's archive

The species also appears in Konrad Szychowski's private material archive. [Kaktusy i Inne 2005c, file p. 22, 23, 25, 26, 27] [Cactáceas y Suculentas Mexicanas 1959, file p. 18]