Some interesting Mamms from my Mexican trip in April

I am slowly going through my photos, which cover a lot more than just Mamms, but I thought that I'd add some of the photos of the more interesting Mamms, and Coryphanthas, and Thelocacti, that I managed to see. I'll keep adding to this thread, as and when as I get to them.

In the hills above Pachuca, it was very dry, and this M. uncinata clearly is suffering. They all were.


Yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you, this Mammillaria discolor from near Mineral del Monte, is really growing on a tree branch! It was the only one that was growing like that, the others on the ground were also healthy and in bud.


Elsewhere at slightly lower altitudes, this near San Miguel Regla, the M. magnimamma plants were doing very well indeed.


And on the rocks along the MEX-105 north for Mineral del Monte but before Atotonilco, Mammillaria rhodantha also was doing well on the rock face.

Thanks for showing these habitat pictures. An epiphytic growing Mammillaria! I saw an epiphytic growing Cereus in southern Brasil a few years ago so sometimes these plants grow on unexpected places.

Wiebe

Thank you very much Chris for presenting us this great pictures from Hidalgo. I like to compare habitat pictures with those from other travellers and of course from my own trips. It's very assistant for me that you give some hints about the towns you did find the mamms.
It looks like you were lucky to find most plants in flower, very nice.

One question - you presented us E.missouriensis ssp. asperispina from the location of ML438. If have problems to locate Cerro Hijo near Ascension. May I have a hint where I'll find this habitat? Thanks.

Saludos robby

Hi Robby,

Cerro Hijo lies to the southwest of La Ascencion. There are 2 mountains to the southwest of La Ascencion, one is over 3000 meters and the other is around 2700 meters. The latter one is Cerro Hijo, i.e. the child of the higher one. If you use GPS data of Michel Lacoste: they are usually 1 - 2 km from the actual location, probably because the GPS systems in the time when ML visited Mexico were not as advanced as present day GPS systems.
I have not yet climbed Cerro Hijo, but I heard from someone else that it is very difficult to get through the dense bushes when you try to climb it from the La Ascencion - Sandia road.

Best wishes,

Wolter ten Hoeve.

Hi Wolter,

thanks for the very good description. It's easy to find, now I've got it.

We did use the GPS location of Michel Lacoste, which is up a grassy track to the south of the road. It looks as though it ends, and for us it did and we almost literally bumped in to a squad of soldiers combing the wooded area. But as they said when we asked about safety, that they were there, so no problem.
So the last 1/2km or so to the Lacoste position was not on a track of any kind, though as the one we used was mostly grown over, it is possible that there might have bene one then. I think we would have had to go at least another 2km or so to get onto rocky ground, which is where I would have expected to have found M. ascencionis, but as ever, we were running short of time.
In retrospect, and to maximise the number of Mamms we found, I would think that we should have halved at least the sites we tried to explore. At some we were fortunate and found the plants quickly, but at others it was rather more difficult.
One that comes immediately to mind was our search for M. zubleri. The location we went to was about 1km from the road, and it was a steep climb through thick woodland to get to anywhere where Mamms might grow. We did find lots of rocky outcrops, and searched them thoroughly, but needed at least another couple of hours to cover that level and the next level up. As it was the only thing we collected along the way were lots of ticks, which we then spent a good half hour getting them off our clothes, and making sure none had got to our skin. An interesting (!) afternoon.....

Attached is an image of an Inegi map, showing the Cerro Hijo.



Regarding your quest for M. zublerae: Thomas Linzen also told me about the terrible ticks in that region. I visited a location of the Fitz Maurices, who had been there with Charlie Glass. This location involves a very nice walk of an hour (beautiful forest). No ticks because the walk was along a wide trail, so I did not have to crawl through tick-ridden bushes. (And perhaps the weather was not good for ticks when I was there). There were many small calcareous rocks in the forest and along the trail, but the plants at the WAF location were on an exposed rock of about 5 meters high. All the other rocks along the way were only a meter or so high, and not well exposed. The Linzen location is a few km from the WAF location, also on a very big rock. I expect that there will be more locations in the region, but the dense vegetation makes it difficult to see suitable rocks.

Wolter.

My only lasting - well a few days - after effect of that climb in the woods was that I slipped once and grabbed what I thought was a branch of a tree, only to find that it was the stem of a Jatropha. Ouch....it took about a fortnight before all the swelling had gone down, though it was only a couple of days when it was painful.

A nice wide forest trail would have been very welcome!