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  Mammillaria huitzilopochtli  CACTUS ART
NURSERY

Cultivation and Mail Sale
of Cacti and Succulents.


Mammillaria huitzilopochtli L066 Tecomavaca, Oaxaca, Mexico 500-600m


 It will form pretty ring of beautiful pinkish red flowers at Xmas followed by a crown of little red fruit in May.

 

Description: Solitary or slowly clumping in untidy clumps, up to 8 cm tall, 6 cm wide.
Stems: Dark green, at first spherical, later cylindric or club shaped, 8-15 cm high, 6-8 cm in diameter, apex slightly depressed.
Tubercles: compressed on the sides, cylindrical to conical.
Axil: With dense white wool in the flowering area.
Radial spine: 15 to 30, dense, pectinated, held close to stem, glassy white, brown at base, up to 1.5-3,5 mm long, straight or slightly bent.
Central spine: Generally absent or sometime 1 erect fine acicular or awl-shaped, thicker at the base. Most of the clones have short, light grey spines 4-10 mm long. Occasionally, they have longer brown or black central spines (Up to 20 mm long).
Flower: Produces rings of bright pink to carmine, 12-15 mm long, 7-10 mm wide, often not opening widely. Stigmas carmine.
Fruit: Red club-shaped to cylyndrical up to 15 mm long (frequently seedless in cultivation).
Blooming season (Europe): Winter (from November to March)
Seed: Brown, very small.

 
 The differences between the subspecies are:
 -- ssp. huitzilopochtli; has 0-1 central spines and up to 30 radial spines.
 -- ssp. niduliformis; has 2-4 central spines and up to 22 radial spines per areole.


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Photo gallery MAMMILLARIA


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Family: Cactaceae (Cactus Family)


Scientific name:  Mammillaria huitzilopochtli D.R. Hunt
Published in: Cact. Succ. J. (GB) 41(4): 106 (1979)

Origin:  Mexico (
Oaxaca, Puebla). Altitude 500 - 2.600 m.

Habitat and ecology: It is an obbligate saxicole that grows on vertical cliffs. Due to their verticality, cliffs avoid sunlight at noon, providing a cool refuge during the hottest hours of the day. Living on the cliff may be costly because radiation is reduced but on steeper slopes plants find refreshment when the climate is hot. This may contribute to explain why cliff-dwellers have evolved in so many succulent-plant families.

Conservation status: Listed in CITES appendix 2.

 

 


This is a beautiful plant with short starry clusters of spines.

Cultivation: It is a  relatively rapid growing  species.  This is easily grown into clumps, but it does often have an irregular pattern of offsetting.  Water regularly in summer, but do not overwater (Rot prone) Use pot with good drainage and a very porous potting media,  keep dry in winter. Feed with a high potassium fertilizer  in summer. It is quite frost resistant if kept dry, hardy as low as -5° C. Outside full sun or afternoon shade, inside needs bright light, and some direct sun. Easily flowering. Most plants will offset readily, and clumps can be produced in a few years.
Propagation: Division, direct sow after last frost.

 

Photo of conspecific taxa, varieties, forms and cultivars of Mammillaria huitzilopochtli.

Home | E-mail | Plant files | Mail Sale Catalogue | Links | Information | Search

All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Enciclopedia of Cacti. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.