Mammillaria ID please

[ftsiga]

72527337_1349212051900781_6382881800598847488_o.jpg (85.88 KiB) Viewed 1235 times

[TimN]

It sort of looks like the straight-spined M. perezdelarosa.

[ftsiga]

i dont think so , because M. perezdelarosa has only one central spine.

[Atozbotanicals]

Mammillaria microhelia

[DaveW]

Thanks for the prompt Atoz. I knew it looked a bit familiar, it is the very dark spined version of Mammillaria microhelia known as Mammillaria droegeana, usually reduced to synonymy under M. microhelia, but a nice form. I had one from Uhlig many years ago but lost it one winter. Typical M. microhelia radials which is how it gets it's name, microhelia = "little sun".

Click on number 4 image in this link to enlarge. As you can see even in M. droegeana the spine colour can vary quite a bit.:-

http://www.mammillarias.net/wordpress_u ... elia&lg=uk

[Lambda44]

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... microhelia

[Atozbotanicals]

Thanks for the prompt Atoz. I knew it looked a bit familiar, it is the very dark spined version of Mammillaria microhelia known as Mammillaria droegeana, usually reduced to synonymy under M. microhelia, but a nice form. I had one from Uhlig many years ago but lost it one winter. Typical M. microhelia radials which is how it gets it's name, microhelia = "little sun".

Click on number 4 image in this link to enlarge. As you can see even in M. droegeana the spine colour can vary quite a bit.:-

http://www.mammillarias.net/wordpress_u ... elia&lg=uk

I used to have one of this form as well, a nice find from a local hardware shop. I lost mine in beginners’ ignorance to rot & I have yet to find seed of the dark spined form.

[AnalogDog]

Lifle and Cactus Art see it as a sub set of M rhodantha.

[DaveW]

I see the where the confusion arises Analog. They were talking about two different plants named droegeana.

Mammillaria droegeana Hildm. ex Repp. (a M. microhelia form)

Mammillaria rhodantha var. droegeana K.Schum. (a M. rhodantha form)

See:-

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... roegeana_2

http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/CACT ... _droegeana

Evidently droegeana is one of those old poorly described names of uncertain application:-

DROEGEANA.jpg (36.25 KiB) Viewed 1090 times