La storia meriterebbe di essere raccontata più dettagliatamente e sarà oggetto di un post in vista della primavera, stagione della sua fioritura.
Stretta la correlazione con Mammillaria moelleriana di cui dovrebbe essere forma a spine gialle.
Stranamente però la descrizione originale parla di distinte centrali brune (Pilbeam - Mammillaria pag.322)....
DESCRIPTIONS OF SPECIES NOVAE SINCE "THE MAMMILLARIA HANDBOOK"
No. 23: Mammillaria cowperae
Original reference:- E. Shurly, The Cactus and Succulent Journal of Great Britain, Vol. 21, page 58, 1959.
Roots: Short, and of the transporter as opposed to storage type.
Body: Simple, globose, apex not sunken, 1- cm. wide and 11 cm. high (inclusive of spine size and a 2 cm. pale brown underbody). Tubercles, 10 mm. high and 5 mm. wide, tapering to a bluntish apex, roundish and not closely set, in 13 and 21 spirals, green, firm in texture.with watery sap.
Axils, white hairy but without bristles, bare in age. Areoles, very short, white hairy, bare in age.
Spines: Radials, white, acicular, 40 - 50 in number 7 - 9 mm. long, radiating fairly evenly at an angle of 45°, sometimes less regular among , the lower members, horny in age.
Centrals, 8, slightly bulbous at base, pale yellow, 6 are straight, tipped reddish and stout acicular; 2 are hooked, one absolutely central and porrect, the other at the lower edge of the areole, among the radials; the central one is 3 cm, long, the lower one 2.5 cm. long, pale yellow with the upper third to half reddish, in both cases, the hook is of a deeper tint, with an admixture of brown.
When young, the centrals are entirely rich brownish red, later the bases turn yellow increasing up the spine in ago. In extreme age the colours become dull, the straight centrals turn greyish but the hooked centrals retain their colour, merely becoming duller. There is some colour variability among a series of plants. The hooks are extremely sharp and are very tenacious to the touch.
Flowers: Appearing at the shoulder of the plant, very early, January
to March in native habitat but March to May in the United Kingdom. Campanulate, 20 mm. long and 15 mm. wide, having no tube and only a little longer than the tubercles and spines. Outer perianth segments, 12, pale green, oblong, half the height of the flower, but not uniform in size.
Inner perianth segments, 16, oblong, white with a very pale rose midstripe.
Filaments, white above, very pale green below. Style, insorted, palegreen. Anthers, orange-yellow. Stigma lobes, 6 - 8 , pale green tinted reddish, short. When expanded they become white with a very faint tint, club shaped and only slightly puboscent.
Fruit: White to pale green, very small, roundish or rather onionshaped with a pointed apex.
Seeds A little less than 1 mm. in diameter, globoso to snail-shaped
with a straight base, black, small pits in curving lines from the base which, is yellowish. There is a micropyle at one end of the base.
Type locality: In or near a large canyon, in leafmould in rocky crevices, at 8,000 feet altitude in the Sierra Madre of the West in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico. Discovered by and named for Mrs. Jane Cowper, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.
Notes: This striking species, with its highly coloured spines, is much
sought after, and the demand greatly exceeds the supply. Some seedlings have recently become available in Great Britain, and it is to be hoped that a more general distribution will not be long delayed. M. cowperae has affinities to M. jaliscana, but there are clear differences in the hookedspine count, the flower colour, and the axils, and also in the type locality M. jaliscana, as its name implies, is found in the Mexican State of Jalisco.
Fotografia di Walter ten Hoeve (the Netherlands) da Presa de Linares - Zacatecas - Messico
Mammillaria cowperae
Fotografia di Walter ten Hoeve (the Netherlands) da Presa de Linares - Zacatecas - Messico
Mammillaria cowperae
L'ultima modifica di maurillio il Ven 26 Dic 2014, 14:08, modificato 5 volte |
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