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Mammillaria (Mamilopsis) senilis.
This is a very ornamental plant that looks like a cotton ball with
small but deadly sharp,
glistening hooked white spines and many white radials.
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Description: Branching
basally to form clumps.
Stems: Globose to cylindrical, up to 15 cm tall and 10 cm wide.
The tubercles are conical, obtuse with wool and bristles in the axil.
Without latex.
Radial spine: 30 - 40, thinner than the centrals, white, to 20 mm
long.
Central spine: 4 - 6, white with yellow tips, upper and lower ones
hooked.
Flower: Flower yellow (rare), or near white (rare) to pink or
orange-red (usually), 60 - 70 mm long, 55 - 60 mm in diameter; floral
tubes slender, scaly, to 4 cm long.
Flowering season: February and March
Fruit: Silvery red to greenish white.
Seed: Black.
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Photo &
©
copyright
by
Irwin Lightstone
Note: Mamilopsis (Mammillaria) senilis, was placed in a
separate genus due to various differing characteristics involving flower
shape (The flowers have a characteristic
zygomorphic structure - unlike the other mammillarias - with tube
possessing obvious "scales"
- i.e. fleshy reduced sepaloids - and by the apparent lack of fragrance
in the flower) , size, seed and pollen morphology. The genus
Mamilopsis includes only M. senilis. Notice that contrarily
to the name Mammillaria, Mamillopsis has only one 'm'. |
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Cultivation: This plant blooms easily and needs lots of light with
ample airflow. Use pot with good drainage and a porous soil with
excellent drainage, as can be achieved by the addition of extra perlite
or pumice. Pot plants are quite
wet-sensitively, especially in light of their small root
system. Water thoroughly when soil is dry to
the touch during the
growing season, let soil dry in between to prevent root rot,
keep very dry in
winter. Feed with a high potassium fertilizer in summer.
Usually it is recommended to
overwinter this plant in a bright and warm greenhouse to
provide protection from freezing weather to prevent possible scarring,
but it is a mountain plant that prefers somewhat cooler temps
and it proved to be quite
frost resistant
(if kept dry it is hardy as low as -7° C or less)
A resting period in winter and strong light are necessary so that it can
flower properly. Plants will offset readily, and
dense clumps can be produced in a very few years.
Propagation: Through seeds and
cuttings. |
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Family:
Cactaceae (Cactus
Family) |
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Scientific name: Mammillaria
senilis
First description: by Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849: 8,82
(1850).
Origin: Chihuahua, Jalisco and Sinaloa, Mexico. Altitude 2.400 -
2.800 m.
Habitat: Grows on moss-covered boulders in
pine forests at high altitudes.
Conservation status: Listed in
CITES appendix 2.
Synonyms:
- Mamillopsis (Mammillopsis) senilis
(Salm-Dyck) Britton & Rose 1923.
- Cochemiea senilis
- Mamillopsis diguetii
- Mammillaria diguetii
- Mammillaria senilis var diguetii
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Photo
and © copyright by
Andrea
B. (Bologna, Italy)
The red flowers are huge and showy
(huge for a Mammillaria) during Ferbruary and March.
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Cultivation
and Mail Sale 
