Field photos from Hidalgo, Mexico

Hi everybody !

As you might have seen on the "presentation" forum, i'm new in here, and if you want to know a little bit more about me, you can go there => https://mammillaria.forumotion.net/t1680-new-one-from-mexico#5555

Anyway, i visited a nice place lately, near Ixmiquilpan, in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. A LOT of Mammillaria species are growing around there, and i'd like to share some pictures with you and also get some names if you guys have some ideas !

Could you confirm that the following pictures are all the same species ? I'm doubting because the spines looks quite different in size.
I'm thinking about Mammillaria compressa ssp compressa, am i right ?
















An extra one, the quite beautiful Mammillaria longimamma, same location.



Thanks and i hope you enjoyed, next time more pictures !
Damien

Just saw that i have three other unidentified guys from the same place, any idea ?







and other 2 extra pictures => another M. longimamma and a variegated specimen of an unknown species





thanks !

Nice photos, Damien.

The plants that you think could be M. compressa might be that, but could also be M. magnimamma, I can't tell from the photos, I'd want a closer view of the spines and axils to be sure.

The unidentified plants (all 3 are the same) is, I believe M. sempervivi. Near Venados, you can find a yellow flowered form, and further west it appears to be pink, or pink/white flowered.

The last unidentified, variegated plant is probably the same as your first ones.

The spine lengths do vary a great deal.

I travelled throiugh Ixquimilpan in April, from Meztitlan up into the mountains towards Tequiquiapan. There are some great plants along the way, but the most common Mamm like the clumps you have shown here were a form of M. magnimamma which once was called M. seitziana. Yours maybe the same, but closer photos needed first before I could be sure.

Hi, thanks you SO much for your answer.

As you asked me, here there are some close up from the pics i showed you before.

I'm also showing close up of two from the three "unidentified plans" because here as well the spines are quite variable, so i want to be sure.

Great trip that you have done in Hidalgo then ! i was also over there in april !
Which other states have you visited in Mexico ?














Here is also a picture of a M. Magnimamma (this time for sure) growing at about 1km from my house.

Your photos 2, 3 & 4 in close up are I think M. compressa. Photo 1 might be M. magnimamma, based mainly upon the long lower spine and the smaller number of other spines. These are quite difficult to separate sometimes, I have found.

The last 2 photo are, for me, both M. sempervivi.

And to answer your question about other states, I'v ebeen to Mexico 3 times now: in 2005 I was in Mexico DF, Puebla, Oaxaca, Moelos and Hidalgo. in 2010, I visited Guanajuato, Aguascalientes (via a little of Jalisco), Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, and Michoacan. This year, I visited Hidalgo, Queretaro, Guanajuato, SLP, NL, Tamaulipas and a little of Coahuila. Lots of miles, but some great plants to see, not just Mamms of course!

Hi Damien,

My ID for your photos is as follows:
Message 1: First 6 photos are all M. compressa (M. compressa has a very variable spination, even among the different heads of a large clump, sometimes very long spines, but on other heads of the same clump the spines can be much shorter (the more sun the head gets, the longer the spines?). M. magnimamma generally has a darker green body colour than M. compressa.
Message 2: Probably all of them are M. pseudocrucigera or M. sempervivi (I assume they are all from exactly the same location; it then nicely shows the variability in nature). The last photo shows M. compressa.
Message 3: I call all of them M. compressa.

I have added 3 photos of clumps of M. compressa, all from the same location and all taken on the same day (near El Alberto, south of Ixmiquilpan). This shows the variability in this species. From the photos one could even make the suggestion that the plants protect themselves from too much sun either by dense spination or by dense wool.

Wolter ten Hoeve, Assen, The Netherlands.

Thanks you very much for both of your messages.

Well, For the two ones identified as "sempervivi", i also had pseudocrucigera as a possible name, i think it's gonna be hard to find out who's that little guy ( btw yeah, the few different specimens are from the same location)

Nice field pictures Wolter ! The first one shows very well the variability. It should be posted on the description page of this species on mammillarias.net, shouldn't it?
By the way, you confirm the last pic i posted is a magnimamma, right ?

Another question, i saw a "M. kewensis" from Hidalgo on my field number querry, what does mean M. kewensis (which is not in the synonyms page in mammillarias.net) ?

thanks again,
Damien

Hi Damien,

thanks you for showing us all those great pictures fom mexico.

M.kewensis was described by SALM-DYCK in 1850. It's a form of M.polythele or if you want a synonym of M.tetracantha (=hidalgensis). This is a group of Mammillaria growing also nearby Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo. The four spines are characteristic for this group but they have a lot of wool in the axills and they become more cylindric. Therefore I agree with Chris and Wolter your plant is M.sempervivi.

Robby

Yes Damien, I qualify that last photo as M. magnimamma.

Wolter.