Mammillaria melispina

Mammillaria melispina -  Werderm. in Notizbl. Bot Gart. Berlin 12 : 226. 1934.


Mammillaria melispina?  ROG 095
ROG 095 - Mexicó : Nuevo León (North of La Escondida)
From "Hikuli" Giuseppe ( Beppe ) Costa - Cagliari

From the responsable of the web site of the U. K. Mammillaria Society i get this message....

" I also have  a plant of Rog 095, labelled as M. melispina. But the description of that species doesn't match the plant that I have, or that which you show in the gallery.

In Craig, M. melispina is described as having 2 (rarely 1-4) central spines, and no (0) radial spines. The flowers are pale citron-yellow. It was described as coming from Jaumave, Tamaulipas.

I don't know why Helmut Rogozinski thought that this was M. melispina, but it is from one of his early field trips, and perhaps he was not as experienced as he later became.

I think this collection Rog 095 is one of the many forms of M. formosa which are so variable and all over the area of his collection. La Escondida was on my route in 2012, and I took some photos of the plants which I believe to be M. formosa, and which look very similar to Rog 095."

Chris Davies

From a post in this forum, this is what Waltertenhoeve write about ROG 095:
From the Rogozinski field list (booklet published by the AfM about a month ago): Rog 095 Mamm. spec. north of La Escondida
Nl 61, north of La Escondida in the forest large chalk plates. Between these chalk plates M. spec., altitude 1900 meters.

I do not find the Rogozinski notes of Rog 94 - 98 very helpful. Rog 094 is from Entronque San Roberto, and in his notes he writes: San Roberto - La Escondida - Aramberri - Matehuala.
Rog 96 and 97 are from San Juanito de Solis, which is a little north of La Ascension, i.e. between San Roberto and La Escondida. Rog 98 is from Aramberri. One would then expect that the location of Rog 95 would be between Rog 94 and 96, i.e. north of La Ascension (OK, that is north of La Escondida, but quite far north of it).
North of La Ascension one can indeed find a M. spec. which might be similar to Rog 95, e.g. SB 1566 (MG 968.03). I have found somewhat similar plants north of La Ascension around the year 2000 (old slides).
A little north of La Escondida (no forest yet, that is further north) I have found M. formosa, they look like very normal formosas. Altitude there is 1500 meters. About 10 km north of La Escondida the 1900 m level is reached.
Because the exact location of Rog 095 is not known, it will remain somewhat of a mystery.


Walter ten Hoeve