There are many Mammillaria species that could be considered magnificent, but this is the one that impressed Mexican cactologist Francisco Buchenau, who described it at length in the Mexican journal Cactaceas y Succulentas 12:3-7 (1967). Mammillaria authority, John Pilbeam, agrees, particularly when the species achieves its potential of clumps of hundreds of columnar stems knit together, Velcro-like, with its long, hooked, honey-colored central spines, backlit by the afternoon sun. Spine color can vary from yellow to caramel (as in this clone). The carmine-colored flowers are an added attraction crowning the upper portions of the stems in late winter and early spring. Buchenau felt the need to deflect potential poachers, even in those early days of concern about cactus conservation. As a result, he published erroneous locality information, namely San Juan Bautista in the state of Puebla. The species was rediscovered by Hunt and Dudley Gold in Morelos, between Cuautla and Izúcar de Matamoros, Peñón de Amayuca, September 1971. We offer rooted cuttings of HBG 52700, propagated from a cutting collected November 29, 1976, by Joan Johnson (#76-4), a former director on the board of CSSA. She found it growing in Morelos, Mexico, near Cuautla, 43 miles south of Cuernavaca, on the northeast side of Peñón de Amayuca. $8.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 93 (2), Summer 2021