This is a quality reproduction vintage print of Coryphantha erecta (Syn: Mammillaria erecta) reproduced from a colour-printed, hand-finished stipple engraving by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759 - 1840). Redouté was a Belgian botanical artist who is today considered one of the finest and most influential of the genre. In 1782, Redouté travelled to Paris where he came to the attention of Marie Antoinette who became his patron. In 1787, he travelled to London and studied plants at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. He was later the official artist of Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Coryphantha erecta was first described by Charles Antoine Lemaire in 1837 as Mammillaria erecta before being moved to the genus Coryphantha in 1868.

Coryphantha erecta is native to NE and Central Mexico and the coastal Mexican Gulf states as far south as Veracruz where it grows on rocky highland slopes and dry scrubland on both alkaline and igneous soils.