Mammillaria luethyi

Hello Sonja,
This is a prize winner, stunning flowers!!! Is it on own roots or grafted ?

My grafted M. luethyi:

Grafted or not, still one of the most beautiful Mammillaria flowers.

I'll join in the display - you can just see the plant - on its roots, single headed.

Today and yesterday a seed-grown luethyi was in full flower (one head, on its own roots). I have a few more grafted luethyis as well as another seed-grown one, but they are not yet flowering.
I really like the stunning flowers of this species. Also added are a few macros of the tubercles, showing the 'spination' on each tubercle.

Wolter.

Great macro shots, Wolter. Those really are the most unusual spine clusters!
And well, the flowers.......

Sorry to say this, but in the second macro shot, it appears there are Red Spidermites on the tubercle! I know they are supposed to be susceptible to spidermite attacks too.
Hey, does anyone know if they are self fertile or not? I just ordered a grafted plant and am expecting it by weeks end.

I doubt that the small reddish dots have anything to do with spider mites. The plants still look very healthy, no sign of spider mite damage. The tubercles are only 1.5 - 2 mm in diameter, which would make the small reddish dots about 0.05 mm, which I believe is much too small for spider mites.
The macro shots of the areoles were taken with a Canon MP-E 65 mm lens, which can enlarge up to 5 times. Details like the spine-like structure of the areoles, which are not visible with the naked eye, will become visible with this lens. However, sharpness of depth is very, very small.

As far as I know, M. luethyi is not self-fertile, but perhaps there are exceptions. Two exceptions in my greenhouse: One plant of M. zephyrantoides is self-fertile, just like a M. saboae roczekii. The latter one was grafted on a piece of Opuntia. A roczekii on its own roots was not self-fertile. The Opuntia-grafted plant died a winter ago, but from the seeds I got some nice small seedlings (it looks as if roczekii germinates better than the others of the saboae group or M. luethyi).

Wolter.

Very nice Wolter!

I agree with your marks on the germination of roczekii; in general I have good germination with seeds of this ssp.

Wiebe

That's Great Wolter, It would really be bad to lose the plant. Very nice flowers too btw.

And I'll keep my fingers crossed I can find pollen for my plant if and when it blooms.