Mammillaria of the Month

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Mammillaria hahniana (Part 2)

 

This is an old favourite which comes in a variety of flavours. Traditionally, Mammillaria hahniana is a long haired wolly areoled plant and the longer and thicker the hairs, the more admired the plant is. It is quite variable, and four subspecies have been defined to recognise the more commonly found variants. These are ssp. hahniana, ssp. woodsii, ssp. bravoe, and ssp. mendeliana.

Last month we looked at ssp. hahniana and ssp. bravoe. Now we come to the the other two.

Mammillaria hahniana ssp woodsii

Photo Courtesy of Mammillarias.net (Permission from Hugo de Cock)

 

.Mammillaria hahniana ssp. woodsii is a well known species, with, as the photo shows, a good covering of wool and much darker, almost black central spines. It comes from Guanajuato, in Mexico. The darker central spines are mostly 2 in number, and 25-30 white, fine, radial spines.

 

Mammillaria hahniana ssp mendeliana

 

Photo Courtesy of m Hugo de Cock

Mammillaria hahniana ssp mendeliana is a rather different looking plant, without the hair that is more typical of the species. It comes from Guanajuato and also is reported from Queretaro. It often appears as though it has no radial spines, although these are often present in young plant, but appear to vanish with age. The few central spines, described as having 2-4, are longer than the type, becoming grey.