€21,20

Mammillaria senilis Lodd. ex Salm-Dyck 

🌱 Morphology
Slow-growing cactus, initially solitary, which can produce offsets over the years and form small clusters. The body is globose to short-cylindrical, 10–15 cm tall and 6–12 cm in diameter, green, but practically hidden under an extraordinary covering of white spines and bristles. The tubercles are conical and the axils have abundant wool. Each areole can gather around 35 spines, with 4–6 longer and more robust central ones, some hooked, white with yellowish tips. This dense silver “hair” contrasts spectacularly with its large red flowers.

🌍 Distribution, habitat, and family
It is distributed throughout the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, in Chihuahua, Durango, Jalisco, and Sinaloa, although field records confirm numerous mountain populations in Durango and Chihuahua. It lives at approximately 2,200 to 2,900 m, on rocks and moss-covered boulders in pine forests and other mountain environments. It is, therefore, a high-mountain Mammillaria, very different from lowland and warm-climate species. It belongs to the Cactaceae family, Cactoideae subfamily, and Cacteae tribe.

❄️ Temperature · USDA Zone 8b
It tolerates minimum temperatures of up to −8 ºC when dry and with well-acclimated specimens. There are cultivation observations of specimens that have withstood occasional episodes of −8 to −9 ºC completely dry, although this resistance should not be automatically extrapolated to newly transplanted or damp plants.

☀️ Lighting
It needs plenty of light to maintain dense spination and promote flowering, but its origin in mountain forests suggests avoiding sudden exposure to the scorching summer sun. Progressive adaptation is recommended, as well as filtered light during the most intense hours. A DLI PAR of 20–30 mol·m⁻²·day⁻¹ during active growth is appropriate.

💧 Growth cycle and watering
Winter rest. It must be kept dry during the cold period. In spring, watering is gradually resumed, and during active growth, water should be provided abundantly but spaced out, allowing the substrate to dry completely. In very hot summers, it is advisable to prevent roots from remaining constantly moist.

🌸 Flowering
Its flowers are especially large for the size of the plant, orange-red to scarlet, occasionally yellowish, funnel-shaped, and up to 4.5–7 cm long. They appear from spring to early summer. There are cultivation observations in which flower opening extends for several weeks: a plant may start with the first flowers and continue to open new buds successively, so it is more appropriate to speak of prolonged and successive flowering than of several clearly separated pulses. The RHS places cultivation maturity and first flowering at approximately 5–10 years.

🌿 Nutrition
During active growth, Desert CHOICE® Cactaceae NPK (Ca-Mg) 4-4-7 (4-4) is recommended. Assimilable calcium promotes the formation of firm tissues and the maintenance of turgidity, while magnesium participates in chlorophyll synthesis.

This is an inimitable xerophyte grown in Madrid in a technological square pot and with the substrate activated with mycorrhizal fungi and biofungicides.

10x10 cm pot

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