Mammillaria hernandezii

Mammillaria hernandezii
Date: 2002 October 19

This attractive plant from Oaxaca, Mexico, is still not common in cultivation.

The picture shows a group of 7 plants which I raised from seed sown in 1996. The solitary heads are up to 2.5cm in diameter.

A characteristic of this species is that, at least when cultivated in England, the flowers appear during Autumn and Winter, and often fail to develop properly due to cold, damp, and lack of light in our climate. These flowers are probably the earliest I have ever had on the plants, and a sunny October day prompted them to open.