Mammillaria amajacensis is another of those species that has come under some discussion with regard to its proper classification. It was formally named amajacensis by Brachet and Lacoste in the CSSJ 69(4) in 1997, although it had been published earlier as a provisional name in our own Journal in 1991.

It seems to grow easily from seed, and it isn't many years before it adds to its distinctive spination with a ring of pink flowers. These appear to vary slightly, some plants being rather lighter  than that of the plant above, sometimes with a  clearer distinction between the darker midstripe and the rest of the petal.

It comes from western Hidalgo, originally found by Sanchez-Mejoradae in 1955, and later by Charles Glass who thought it a form of M. sempervivi. The plant above bears the Field Collection number MBF165, although plants from seed   under Michel Lacoste's collection number ML46 has been available for some time.