Mammillaria ID

[gillinger]

I've just acquired this plant, which was only marked as a Mammillaria. After a lot of searches I came up with M. sphaerica as a possible. Can anyone please confirm? Thanks.

[ohugal]

I don't think it's M. sphaerica. Yours has a yellowbrown upwards oriented central spine.

[zpeckler]

Huh, this actually kinda looks Escobaria viviparia to me. Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[anttisepp]

matudae??

[Tom in Tucson]

matudae??

I'd say 80% probability.

[gillinger]

I managed to get in touch with the person I got it from and she says she thinks it's M. rubrograndis. From photos on the internet this doesn't seem likely. Any thoughts on that?

[anttisepp]

No, it cannot be rubrograndis at all, M. r. has completely other appearance, flattened stem and other spines.

[gillinger]

No, it cannot be rubrograndis at all, M. r. has completely other appearance, flattened stem and other spines.

I agree. Matudae is looking the more likely. Maybe it just needs to grow a bit. Flowers might help but that won't be this year now.

[anttisepp]

M matudae flowers at very early age.

[Steve Johnson]

Yep, I'd say M. matudae. Here's one I purchased in July 2019, first flowers in May 2020:

Mammillaria_matudae0510-05142020.jpg (122.38 KiB) Viewed 2901 times

Mammillaria_matudae05142020.JPG (151.01 KiB) Viewed 2901 times

It's not like cacti come off an assembly line -- expect variability among members in the same species. Gillinger, in your case it'll be variability of central spine color.

[gillinger]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm settled now on M. matuae.