Family:
Cactaceae (Cactus
Family)
Scientific name:
Mammillaria
lasiacantha
Engelmann
Published in: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts. 3: 261. 1856 (as Mamillaria).
Origin: USA (Texas, New
Mexico), Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, San Luis
Potosí, Sonora, Zacatecas).
Habitat: Chihuahuan desert scrub with Agave lechuguilla, rocky
hills, gravelly slopes, usually on limestone. 500-2100 m.
Synonyms:
- Mammillaria lasiandra var. denudata
- Chilita lengdobleriana
- Ebnerella lasiacantha
- Mammillaria lengdobleriana
- Mammillaria neobertrandiana
- Cactus lasiacanthus var. denudatus
- Chilita denudata
- Neomammillaria denudata
- Ebnerella denudata
- Mammillaria denudata
- Escobariopsis lasiacantha
- Neomammillaria lasiacantha
- Cactus lasiacanthus
- Chilita lasiacantha
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Description: Plants
usually unbranched or slowly clustering,
deep-seated in substrate and inconspicuous.
Stems: Depressed-spheric to short cylindric, 1-3.5cm wide ×
1,5-7 cm tall. axils bare.
Roots: Diffuse not enlarged.
Spines: 40-80 per areole, in several series but all equally thin,
mostly appressed, white or very pale pink, often minutely tipped pinkish
brown, innocuous, bristlelike, 0,5-6 mm, glabrous to plumose, all
interpreted as radial, innermost spines shortest; No central spines.
Flowers: 1-2,5 cm; white or cream, usually with sharply defined
midstripes of green, yellow, tan, pink, pale purple, or reddish,
blooming from January to March
Fruits: Scarlet, cylindric or clavate, 10-25 mm long with floral
remnant persistent ripening in June August.
NOTE: Adults of Mammillaria
lasiacantha usually have glabrous spines, but in some
populations all plants may retain plumose spines at maturity.
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Cultivation:
This plant has not the fame to be easy to cultivate, but in good
conditions with excellent
ventilation, it grows without difficulty.
It is especially sensitive to overwatering. So
careful watering and an open
mineral
potting soil are a must.
Avoid
the use of
peat or other
humus sources in the
potting mixture. Don't add
limestone to the potting mix which must be moderately acidic.
Can be sensitive to frost (but if dry they are resistant to -5°
C). Requires maximum
sun exposure to reach its full potential
and to achieve success in
flowering. A winter rest that
allows the plant to shrivel (perhaps losing up to 25% of its summer
height) will encourage flowering and long time survival. Be careful to
encourage slow growth.
Provide very good
ventilation.
Propagation: Direct sow
after last frost. (it usually doesn't produces offsets).
Photo of
conspecific taxa, varieties, forms and cultivars of the
Lasiacanthae group. (This
taxon has lots of synonyms whit several controversial varieties
and subspecies)
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Cultivation
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