¿Mammillaria karwinskiana?

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Hi Aztekium,

Your plant certainly has the characteristic bristles of karwinskiana sp. karwinskiana, but the spination is possibly a bit too long for this. Karwinskiana ssp. nejapensis normally would have the longer spines, but would have more bristles than your plant currently shows. Your plant appears to be a small specimen, so may produce more later on.

My second suggestion, as your plant has somewhat darker spines, that it could lean towards a close relative m. mystax.

If your plant is of the karwinskiana type, in time will offset from the side or dichotomously and will have whitish flowers, whereas mystax will invariably remain solitary with rose red flowers.

Hi delandmo,

Thank you very much. Yes, it is a very young plant and will have to wait for a more secure identification. For now it remains as M. mystax

Regards

Hi,

I'll weigh in with my 2d-worth.

It can be difficult with a young plant,as you clearly understand. M. mystax is supposed to have between 1 and 7 central spines as well as 3-10 radial spines. M. karwinskiana rarely has any central spines, and the radial spines can be quite variable in number (3-10) and length.

Reppenhagen described a plant he found in Oaxaca as M. karwinskiana v. longispina, and I have a couple of young plants, but the spines aren't as long as those of your plant.

Based on the spination, I'd support karwinskiana, but the spination does look pretty extreme for that species, as Delandmo has already said.

It might be that central spines will develop as the plant ages a bit, that's not uncommon, and certainly the flowers when those appear will help a great deal.

Ok Chris, thank you very much for your opinion. When she blooms I climb the photos in this post for more precise identification.

Regards