Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Last of the Stapeliad blooms, & ID help please




This is the last of the Stapeliad blooms for the year... most probably. Pretty soon, we'll be looking at bringing it in for the winter, and there is no way I'm letting this plant stink up the house , so any further buds will be picked before they develop.



As you can see, it has a couple of flies attracted....


Now, some of you may remember this plant from a previous post... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/07/curse-you-wal-mart.html

well, it's back...
Now, I know it's a Mammilaria, and that it divides dichotomously, meaning that it splits at the growing point rather than growing branches or pups. The thing is that it bloomed last week, you can see what's left of the blooms if you look closely. They were small, about a quarter inch across, and dark "Hot" pink, and I cannot, for the life of me, find a plant that divides this way with a bloom that color. Any ideas anybody? Or any resources on the web that might be able to help me out? I've exhausted most of my resources...
UPDATE: possibly this plant is Mammillaria crucigera ssp. crucigera, which divides dichotomously at maturity, and also produces pups and offsets at the base, or, it may be M. perbella...

5 comments:

  1. I am sure Aiyana will know!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. http://mammillarias.net/gallery/mammillaria_list.php?lg=uk
    search here

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Ashraf! I think I found it, but I'm not positive...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I meant to comment on this--it's hard to see the spine coloration close enough, but it could also be a M. mystax 'casoi', which has spines more the color of what I can see in your photo. Or maybe not. The M. crucigera ssp. crucigera usually has spines that are a rusty color near the base, and yours doesn't appear to have that characteristic. M. perbella, M. rhodantha ssp aureiceps, M. formosa ssp formosa, M. karwinskiana ssp. nejapensis, and M. parkinsonii also divide dichotomously. But then, you probably know that already!
    Aiyana

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks Aiyana... I have a M. karwinskiana ssp. nejapensis here, and it looks absolutely nothing like that. Right now, I'm leaning towards M. perbella, which I read is fairly common in cultivation, and is a bit variable. But that's what it's looking closest to. I agree that the crucigera is probably not it... This could all be avoided if stupid wal-mart would label their darned plants...

    ReplyDelete