Mammillaria saetigera

Mammillaria saetigera in habitat.......



Mammillaria saetigera WTH 846
WTH 846 - In the steep walls along the MEX-69 (near Conca) - Queretaro - Mexico



Photograph in habitat by Wolter ten Hoeve - Assen - The Netherlands






Photograph in habitat by Wolter ten Hoeve - Assen - The Netherlands






Photograph in habitat by Wolter ten Hoeve - Assen - The Netherlands

Mammillaria saetigera WTH 1071
WTH 1071 - Between Guamuchil and El Rucio, around vertical cliffs - Guanajuato - Mexico



Photograph in habitat by Wolter ten Hoeve - Assen - The Netherlands

Mammillaria saetigera

There is a question-mark hanging over the identity of this species, and some doubt over what has appeared in cultivation with this name attached over the years.
Reppenhagen equates it unequivocally to synonymy with M. hahniana.
Hunt leaves it in limbo
Mammillaria - John Pilbeam pag.337




In this forum...

The name saetigera was first documented in 1933 by Boedeker and Tiegel. It was described as being from Queretaro and San Luis Potosi, woolly in the axils, and with 2 central spines, white with brown tips, and 15-20 radial spines also white. The flowers are almost white with a rose-pink mid-stripe. The Style is pink, anthers yellow, and the stigma lobes 4-5 dark yellow.

Hunt in Bradleya 1987 amends the description by adding white hairlike bristles to the wool in the axils, and the flower has become pink with a darker pink mid-stripe. He says that this is one of the M. hahniana group.

Chris Davies - U.K.




What M. saetigera actually is, I don't know. From Craig's book I get the impression that the flower colour is whitish, as Chris already pointed out. About 10 years ago, Rogozinski wrote a series of articles in the German Mammillaria journal. He recognizes M. saetigera as a real species and puts M. albata and M. woodsii into synonymy. These species grow in the region where M. saetigera was stated to come from. The location 'hacienda Cenca' was mentioned there and Rogozinski equates that to Conca, which lies along the road from Jalpan to Rio Verde. Considering all these doubtful points, it is perhaps the best to discard the name M. saetigera.

Woltertenhoeve - Assen

Mammillaria aff. saetigera  ROG 432
ROG 432 - Guamuchil - Guanajuato - Mexico

Mammillaria aff. saetigera  ROG 495
ROG 495 - Guamuchil - Guanajuato - Mexico
Walter Hellinx collection - Duffel - Belgium

Mammillaria saetigera TL 901
TL 901 - La Florida - Queretaro - Mexico

Mammillaria aff. saetigera  ROG 575
ROG 575 - 6.5km from Xichú - Guanajuato - Mexico
From Mammillaria Reference Collection

Mammillaria saetigera ROG 249
ROG 249 - Jalpan - Queretaro - Mexico

Mammillaria saetigera ROG 101
ROG 101 - Mammillaria albata (?) -  Huizache, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
From Walter Hellinx collection - Duffel - Belgium

About ROG 101:
Rogozinski has allways stated that M.albata is a rediscription of M.saetigera, and he may have a point here.
So I keep the plants from Reppenhagen and Lacoste, and the one’s I collected near Tejuca and Rio Verde as M.albata.
Plants from Rogo I keep as he named them, and also the plants I collected near Xichu and Guamuchil.
They all may be identical but I see some differentces.
Walter Hellinx

Mammillaria affinis woodsii ROG 426
ROG 426 - Atarjea - Guanajuato - Mexico

Mammillaria affinis woodsii ROG 578
ROG 578 - Towards El Torro - Guanajuato - Mexico





Mammillaria affinis woodsii ROG 578
ROG 578 - Towards El Torro - Guanajuato - Mexico

Mammillaria affinis woodsii ROG 580
ROG 580 - La Florida, Querétaro, Mexico

Is SB 336 Mammillaria saetigera?



Mammillaria  SB 336
SB 336 - Galeana - Nuevo Leon - Mexico
from "Ento" Ennio Toso collection - Savona






Mammillaria  SB 336
SB 336 - Galeana - Nuevo Leon - Mexico
from "Giuse" Giuseppe Ruini collection - Rubiera (RE)





Mammillaria  SB 336
SB 336 - Galeana - Nuevo Leon - Mexico
from antonio Gandolfo collection - Vicenza







Now looking at the plant illustrated - one immediate aspect is that it lacks the 15-20 white radial spines, and the two centrals are not white tipped brown. The flower is like that described in Craig, but the stigma is light pink, not dark yellow.
So, I would conclude the Mammillaria sp. SB336 is certainly NOT M. saetigera. To me the plant shown looks closer to M. lloydii or M. formosa ssp. pseudocrucigera than anything else. My inclination is to ally it with M. formosa, and suggest that it might be an outlying form of the subspecies mentioned.
This subspecies has been suggested to be a link between M. formosa proper and M. sempervivi. Since M. sempervivi grows right up to the Tamaulipas border, and so a population of this "link" might not be so extreme a suggestion.

Chris43, moderator





I have 4 seed-grown plants of this M. saetigera SB 336 (MG 881), they are about 15 years old. The number of central spines is 2, but sometimes up to 4, the number of radial spines varies; I counted a maximum of 13 radials. In my opinion, SB 336 is no more than a form of M. formosa, which itself is quite variable because it grows over a huge area.

Woltertenhoeve - Assen