Hello once again,
here are two images of a Mammillaria sp., wild collected in Mexico. The plant is approximately 6 1/2 inches high, with only 2 1/2 inches above ground and 3 3/4 inches in diameter. The spines are grey, with the central spines on top a darker grey. The flower is about 1 cm in diameter dirty white with a brown-red central stripe running the length of each petal. Could this be Mammillaria lloydii? Unfortunately, I do not know where in Mexico this plant was collected.
I am tasked with rescuing plants protected by the CITES regulations. When people arrive from Mexico here in El Paso, Texas with wild collected plants - mostly cacti - the plants are confiscated, because they arrive without documentation and health certificates. Then I receive them in my office. My duty is the examination of the plant material for insect infestation and plant pathogens and, if the plants are "clean", I have a Plant Rescue Center assigned to them. In the process, I also try to identify them as well as I can. I am, however, not a botanist and have only recently started to get more involved with cacti.
That's pretty interesting. Who runs these rescued plant centers? My guess on the Mammillaria would be a M. formosa. Keep the questions coming. We're here to help.
What a great job you have, Harald !
Regarding this plant, it does look like mammillaria formosa. There is detailed information on this plant on the dedicated website mammillaria.net and also a description of other subspecies. Since you have the plant, you can count the spines and check on the details after checking here and you can enlarge the pictures on clicking on them : http://www.mammillarias.net/gallery/mam ... .php?lg=uk
The Plant Rescue Center program is run by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. The United States Department of Agriculture is involved with plant importations, including those protected by the CITES regulations. I am a USDA employee and work with our liaison people in the Washington, D.C. area who contact Fish and Wildlife officials. From a list of 80 Plant Rescue Centers (PRC) one is picked to receive the plants and I ship the cacti to the designated PRC. The PRC's have to be approved by Fish and Wildlife and can state in an agreement what kind of plants they are willing to accept. They have to be public entities like Botanical Gardens or zoos. I make the decision of what is going to be rescued and what we are going to destroy. This kind of work is only a minor part of my job, but I do enjoy it immensely.
Before I forget it: Thank you so much Dominique! The Mammillaria website is going to help me out quite a bit, because a large percentage of cacti arriving from Mexico belong to that genus. You probably realize, that there are so many species of Mammillaria and other cactus genera that look somewhat similar - at least to the non-expert.
Harald,
There is no question that Mammillaria is on of the hardest of species to identify -right along with Opuntia -those two followed by Echinopsis. There are just under 200 species currently recognized, more if you include related genera like Escobaria and Cochemia. Of those about 95% of them occur in Mexico. Knowing that, it is no surprise that you are running into them. Keep posting them on the forum and we'll keep working on the ID's. I still am looking on that "wooly" opuntia. That is a neat one.
Daiv
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
Hi, Harald,
I'm glad if the mammillaria site can be of some help. I have another one that could help you, too because many of the pictures have been taken in the environment where the plants belongs and we all know that a plant in a pot does not always look like a plant in its natural environment. Here is the link : http://www.aiaps-photos.org/index.en.php
Hello Dominique,
thank you once again for your assistance. Plants photographed in the wild would more closely resemble those that I do see at my work station. I am going to check this new website out and will post it on my "favorites" listing of my office computer.
Welcome Harald,
Very neat job you have there! Most of us don’t get to see what wild specimens look like. I think we all would like to help you with your work.
A little advice: Mexico is home to some of the rarest and most sought after cacti on the planet. I would do some research on Mexican cacti so you can recognize some of the more precious ones. If you come across any of these genera, do not destroy them!
Ariocarpus, Astrophytum, Aztekium, Epithelantha, Frailea, Leuchtenbergia, Lophophora, Obregonia, Stenocactus and Turbinicarpus to name just a few of the more exotic ones.
Also be aware that a lot of Central and South American cacti are on the Cites list and are commonly smuggled to the U.S. through Mexico. Keep an eye out for these two: Uebelmannia and Yavia.
Just curious- How do you find all these things?