Mammillaria of the Month

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Mammillaria maycobensis Rog 222

Photo: Plant in Cultivation: M.maycobensis Rog222                                                                                       Copyright: Chris Davies 2011

The name of Mammillaria maycobensis is relatively newly applied by Rogozinski and Plein to plants found in the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidentale as they descend towards the town of Maycoba in Sonora. There is considerable discussion over this and several other related species and as ever, the truth is that these plants are different from other plants of these mountains, but whether they are different enough to deserve a species name depends on whether the similarieties are considered more significant than the differences. In other words, a high level of subjectivity applies! Regardless of taxonomic debates however, the plants in this area which have been given the name of Mammillaria maycobensis are nice compact plants, with attractive spination, and produce really lovely flowers as can be seen in the photo above. The colour of the flowers does appear to vary, as your webmaster saw plants nearthe border between Sonora and Chihuahua last year that carried rather darker flowers, but which W. Plein positively identified as being M. maycobensis. It was also interesting to note that the length of the central spines varies quite consderably. The form pictured, Rog 222, is about in the middle of spine lengths.