Mammillaria fittkaui

Subject: Mammillaria fittkaui Wed Oct 21, 2015 6:19 pm

No 86 Mammillaria fittkaui
Original reference: C.GIass and R.A.Foster, Cactus and Succulent Journal (U.S.), 43, 116, 1971
Body: Cespitose, both from the base and higher up the body. Individual stems 4 to 5cm. in diameter and about 10cm. long, light to dark yellowish green with a rounded and slightly sunken apex.
Roots: Fibrous.
Tubercles: Somewhat obscure and variable in their spiral arrangement, but typically in 8 and 13 spirals, but occasionally 5 and 8, or even 13 and 21.
Tubercles terete, tapering slightly to an abruptly rounded apex, 7mm. wide near the base to about 5mm. in diameter near the apex and nearly 10mm. long, with watery sap. Epidermis thin, pitted with glittering stomata.
Axils: Naked.
Areoles: Slightly depressed, with scant wool in youth, becoming naked later, round, 1-2mm. in diameter.
Spines: Radial spines 7-9, radiating, somewhat unevenly and mostly from the lower half of the aerole, fine-acicular, white, smooth, 5.5 to 7.5mm. long, occasionally slighlty tipped dark brown, somewhat ascending.
Central spines reddish brown in youth, the three upper ones on the same plane as the lower radial spines, or slightly more ascending, and often hardly distinguishable from them except that they are slightly more robust, darker (dark brown on the upper half, with the base white to pale yellow) and slightly longer (8mm.). There is one porrect central spine, strongly hooked, 8-10mm. long, and dark brown except for the lowest 2mm.
Flowers: 1cm. in diameter, 1.5cm. long including the ovary which is external and with a green pericarp.
The tube is 2.5mm. in diameter and pale green. Inner perianth segments whitish with a pale pink cast and a slightly darker mid-line, especially at the acute tip of the segments. Outer perianth segments slightly darker, with a pink line or broader stripe. Filaments
dark lavender-pink. Style and stigma lobes white, andof the same length as the stamens.
Fruit: Small, 7mm. long and 5mm. in diameter, very
soft textured and remaining barely visible down between the tubercles, pale tan but pinkish in the lower half, with the dried perianth persisting.
Seeds: Relatively few, large, 1.5mm. long and 1 mm. in diameter, with a constriction above the large hilum, testa minutely pitted, blackish brown in colour.
Type Locality: A rather inaccessible and limited locality, on rocks, near the north shore of Lake Chapala, Jalisco.
Distribution: Also reported from the Barranca de Guadalajara, Jalisco by Myron Kimnach.
Holotype: Abbey Garden 69-1169, collected by Father Hans Fittkau and deposited in the Herbarium of Pomona College, Claremont, California, U.S.A.
Comments: This species is named for Father Hans Fittkau, a german Catholic priest living in Mexico and, for many years, one of the very active members of the Mexican Cactus Society, distinguished for his field studies. It belongs to the Series Stylothelae but has
some characteristics of the Series Ancistracanthae and is, therefore, as Dr.Hunt has remarked, something of a link between the two Series. It does not have the vigour of many species of the Stylothelae in making a large specimen at maturity. Nevertheless, it presents no problems in cultivation and deserves to be more widely grown, particularly for its pleasing flowerswhich appear in April, May and June.
From "Species Novae since the Mammillaria Handbook" by F. Maddams

Mammillaria fittkaui
N. Laguna Chapala - Jalisco - Mexico