Mammillaria schumannii

My Mammillaria schumannii (ex-Kuentz) finally decided to push out a flower. You can clearly see that almost every single axil has one bud peeking, but this is the first one that actually makes it into a flower in the two years I have had it in my possession. Is it normal for this species to be so reluctant to flower? Am I giving it too much sun?

According to John Pilbeam, who's book 'Mammillaria' I was given for birthday recently, this plant is a bit of a challenge and needs strong light to encourage flowering.

He also says that it 'has a habit of dehiscing the fruit by a circumscissle opening,i.e. around the fruit, rather than the more common basal opening'. What's that all about then!!

...... Si

Thank you, Si. My plant receives plenty of sun. In fact, so much that it has scorched a few plants this year. The sun is getting noticeably stronger, here in Portugal, and I find I have to move the plants around a lot in order to keep them growing or simply alive...

I'm glad it has flowered at last, never mind the fruits. It will get there, eventually. By the way, "dehinscence" is the "technical" word for the way a fruit splits open and is one of the traits often (always?) included in the description of a plant species. Apparently, Mammillaria fruits usually open by a basal opening whereas this species has a different habit.

Scorching sun! That would be a nice problem to have. We've had a miserable summer here in Dear Old Blighty!

I'm not complaining (not much, anyway...)

We've had a very long, hot and dry summer. Yesterday it rained for the first time in six weeks or so. And if you count "proper" rain, i.e. the kind that lasts more than 5 minutes and actually wets your clothes, you'd have to look waaaaay back to April or May to find the last time it rained.