Mammillaria glochidiata xiloensis ML45

In flower today, 6-5-08. Location Almolon, near Gilo, hidalgo, 1600m.



This plant looks nothing like the M.glochidiata xiloensis WTH 365 posted else where and is probably only a form of M.crinita.

I've got also the WTH 365 and ML 45, and I must admit that I don't see any difference. The plant you show here looks different, I agree.

I belive this might have come from Chris last year. There is a habitat photo of M.glochidiata in the Fitz Maurice article in the BCSS journal ( March 2008, page 36 )and it does not look like this. The article goes on say that ' M.glochidiata is distinguished from M.crinita by its prolifically caespitose habit of growth, light green epidermis, fewer radial spines, intermingled radial and central spines, spines that are uniquely thin and with both white and pink flowers '.

I wonder where Fitzmaurice pull the line between crinita and other relative species. Because it's distinguished by it's growth, fewer radials or centrals and pink flowers, so there are a lot more with some more differences he mentioned for glochidiata which he lumped into crinita. I believe it's last exploit was lumping tezontle into crinita. Now we become a very large group which is all crinita.

If this did come from me, and it will have been from seed from D&V Rowlands, sown in May 2006. I have several of these still, and to my eye they all do look similar, apart from the colour of the central spines that varies from plant to plant, most of them are the yellow colour as you show here, but a couple have rather darker spines, but the same shaped plant.
I have a multiheaded older plant named as M. glochidiata, that conforms pretty well to the description - light green epidermis is the most striking difference, and the pinkish flowers. But the epidermis is quite a bright light green, very distinctive, and not like this plant. I must admit to being quite happy with its attribution to crinita though, more so than to glochidiata.
I don't have a WTH365 to compare with, but your photo of it has a lighter epidermis, and pinker flowers than the ML045, but otherwise not so different I'd say. My glochidiata is a much brighter green, but it has no field number, and came from Kent Cacti (now defunct) in 1995. They were very reputable growers, so I don't doubt this attribution at least.