Mammillaria hernandezii

[gerald]

I've got a couple of these, both young plants, wonderful things, both small and slow growing. I was surprised to see flower buds forming in them both over the past few weeks. Surely they're not going to be a blooming 'Christmas cactus'? If so, and even if not, I'm hoping they won't lose too much water through the petals, as it will be a long, dry resting period unti March/April next year for such small plants.

m1.jpg (112.65 KiB) Viewed 3349 times

m2.jpg (129.53 KiB) Viewed 3349 times

[Allen]

This little plant seems to be right on schedule. My plant is at the same stage of the blooming process as yours and I live in Florida. We haven't had any cool weather yet. Nights are still around 14 C and days 26 C so the greenhouse is still quite warm and I am continue regular watering which I will do for another month. I gave my Mammillaria hernandezii a light watering yesterday and it seems that the buds doubled in size over night.

[DaveW]

Mammillaria hernandezii is what used to be known as a "short day plant" (more correctly "a long night plant") and flowers either late or early in the year, rather like Mammillaria plumosa.

"Botanists used to think that the length of daylight a plant was exposed to determined whether a plant would form flowers. But experiments proved otherwise. It is the length of darkness that a plant experiences that plays the most crucial role."

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/garden ... day-plants

"Blooming season (Europe): A characteristic of this species is that, at least when cultivated northern Europe and US, the flowers appears during Autumn and Winter, and often fails to develop properly due to cold, damp, and lack of light in a temperate climate. A sufficiently sunny October day is needed to prompt them to open."

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/MAMMIL ... ndezii.htm

[Lithos]

Isn't that another Mexican Illegal ? or not.

[juster]

I hope your plants flower and survive the winter Gerald, as you say, they are very small. Maybe you could post a pic when they flower? Good luck!

[gerald]

I don't think it's an illegal plant?!

I was curious as to why it would flower at a time if year when 1) there are no pollinators around and 2) the threat of dessication is very high.

I can't see any evolutionary or competitive advantage in flowering now, it makes much more sense to flower when most other cacti flower ie springtime. I'll post pics if/when it happens.

[KarlR]

It's not an "illegal" plant at all. M. hernandezii was described in 1983, long before Mexico implemented stricter regulations (from 1997).

You've got a couple of handsome specimens! I would expect that the reason they're flowering now is probably to do with there being less competition for attention from insects in nature at this time of year. In Oaxaca, Mexico (near to the habitat but ca. 800 m lower down at 1570 m a.s.l.) the temperatures right now are approximately around 15C at night rising to 25-28 during the day, so I'm sure there are insects around to pollinate.

Or, if they bloom during summer in Mexico it might be down to Dave's suggestion about longer nights in Northern Europe during autumn and winter being the trigger for flowering. Currently I keep mine under artificial lights and they flower year round. They experience no variance in day-length so for my plants that's not the trigger for flowering, at least.

[DaveW]

It's debatable if any artificially propagated succulent plant now in trade is illegal in the EU. No matter how the original material was obtained. Presumably only those still holding the original illegally imported originals are in breach of EU law?

The rule reads:-

"Artificially propagated plants

There is a general exemption for all Annex A artificially propagated plants. An EC Certificate is not required to use them commercially once within the EU."

Presumably if CITES Annex A propagated cacti are exempt, so are the less threatened Annex B ones?

See last paragraph in this link:-

https://www.npws.ie/legislation/cites/e ... rtificates

The problem is so many laws and regulations dealing with the same subject since they are often badly drawn up and often contradict each other, so would probably need a court case to decide which apply. It would be a good idea if all the EU Cactus Societies got together and got a proper legal ruling on the matter. Meanwhile if questioned you can always refer them to the above regulation which apparently legitimises them.

[gerald]

I've just read that page on day length so I'll pop one of the plants under the gro-lights which I have on for 12 hours a day. Let's see what happens, watch this space!

[iann]

Mine always flower, more or less, in winter. It depends greatly on when they get enough sun and warmth to open the flowers, any time from October to April!

Annex B plants don't need an exemption because they are not subject to restrictions on commerce within the EU. Commercial transactions involving Annex A (CITES I plus a few) are not permitted within the EU without a certificate (essentially not available), but since that was drawn up with little thought to plants they tacked on a general exemption for artificially propagated plants. So regardless of how or when a species was originally smuggled in, there is no crime in growing those embargoed Mexican plants, only a moral hazard. Even owning one isn't really a crime, although the act of bringing it in could be so there may be questions to ask if you were found in possession the evidence.