The Journal of The Mammillaria Society Volume 61 Number 1 February 2021 Contents Editorial. 3 New President . 4 Mammillaria beneckei by Al Laius & Daniel Beck . 5 Mammillaria columbiana by Alain Buffel . 8 Mammillaria guelzowiana by Alain Sutton †. 9 Mammillaria sempervivi – a conundrum by Robin Arnott . 10 Mammillaria zeilmanniana f. albiflora by Stephen Scarr . 11 Mammillaria tetrancistra by John Pilbeam . 12 Projected climate change threatens significant range contraction of Cochemiea halei (Cactaceae), an island endemic, serpentine-adapted plant species at risk of extinction. 13 Mammillaria halei in cultivation by Keith Flanagan. 14 Mammillaria plumosa from tubercles by David Ilett . 15 Mammillaria longimamma DC. by Stefanie Hernández-Ávila . 16 Seed sowing, part 2 by Mark Masterson. 18 Some American Mammillarias by Ian Woolnough . 21 Coryphantha overview no. 14 by Kathy Flanagan. 27 The ‘oldest’ Turbinicarpus by Ian Woolnough . 35 Book Review . 38 Front cover: Mammillaria longimamma in cultivation (Photo: Alice Vanden Bon) ISSN 0464-8072 Website: http://mammillaria.net Printed by: Minuteman Press, Macclesfield Editorial It is always a daunting task taking over as Editor of anything, whether it is a printed journal, an online magazine or newsletter, but in this case, it is particularly difficult as I am attempting to follow in the footsteps of my predecessors, Bill Maddams and Alasdair Glen. Chris Davies paid tribute to Alasdair in the last issue so all I am going to say here is that his Editorship will be a hard act to follow. I hope that I will continue to have the support of all members and naturally I am keen to receive any feedback on what you would like to see in your Mammillaria Society journal. Do you want more habitat reports, or shorter items about individual species? Maybe you would prefer articles on cultivation, like the seed raising article in this issue. Or would you like to hear about more technical and scientific topics concerning the genera we cover. If you let me know (my email address and phone number are on the back cover) then I will try and cater to your wishes. My aim will of course be to produce a balanced issue each quarter, and indeed cover all of the allied genera too, though the main focus will naturally be on Mammillaria. I will be trying hard to source more articles from overseas, although that can be difficult, as for example, Mexican authors and botanists are more inclined to write for scientific journals. But you can all help me here by keeping your eyes open and letting me know if you come across any items covering our plants – I can then contact the folks concerned and take it from there. Having said all that, why not write a few lines, we could revive the Mammillaria chatter section as just one example. Perhaps you could even write a small article for the journal so just send me a Word document with a picture or two if you have one or ask me to supply a picture, and between us all I am fairly sure we could find a picture of most cacti. This is your journal, so let me know what sort of articles would you like to see, or better still write one. Membership renewal This will be the last journal you will receive if you have not renewed your membership. Please see the information on the last page on how to do this. I hope you will renew for 2021 as the journal has now increased in size with more content and of course the annual seed offer still remains free of charge, and we are planning to include even more seeds this year. Please also spread the word, on Facebook, Instagram, social media, forums and wherever you can. The more members we have, the more we can include in the journal, and organise activities and events for our members once life gets back to some sort of normality again. Errata The last issue – November 2020 – had the wrong volume number on the cover. It should of course have been volume 60. 3 New Society President The Mammillaria Society has been with- out a president for a number of years, in fact ever since the death of W A Fitz Maurice in 2015. We are now delighted that Ken Scales has accepted the honorary role of President. Ken is President of the Exeter Branch of the BCSS, and held various roles prior to that. His passion is certainly for the genus Mammillaria and he still grows signifi- cant numbers of plants from seed even though he is into his eighties. Mammil- laria Society members will have seen him at the AGMs at Wisley as he always helped out and his fitness levels and knowledge of plants certainly put much younger people to shame. A proud Yorkshireman (the son of a butcher) he used to box and play rugby and is a retired head parks gardener from Exeter. He had significant horticultural training and has worked at various high-profile gardens and establishments over the years. He used to visit the Czech Republic with David Rushforth regularly and knows a lot of growers out there and has also been to Mexico to see Mammillaria and other cacti in habitat. Zoom meetings As mentioned in the last Journal, we will use Zoom to host quarterly talks and also our AGM. Full details including the all-important links will be posted on the Society website. Please make a diary note NOW 18th March at 19:30 – Inaugural Talk – Chris Davies on ‘Among my Mammillarias’ 20th May at 19:30 – Annual General Meeting – agenda will be available on the Society website 17th June at 19:30 – A talk by renowned Mammillaria expert Wolter ten Hoeve ‘Mammillarias in my Collection and in habitat’ The schedule for the next set of talks will be published in the August Journal. 4 Mammillaria beneckei by Al Laius & Daniel Beck When I received the third issue of the German AfM journal last year, I was immediately impressed by the stunning photos of the large yellow flowers of Mammillaria beneckei. I contacted the author Daniel Beck, who was happy to send me some photos of this species, slightly different to the ones used in the AfM article, and he also allowed me to include some of his words in English. On a trip to Mexico in 2017, Daniel Beck found Mammillaria beneckei Ehrenb. (syn. Mam- millaria balsasoides) north of Mazatlán, Sinaloa at an altitude of 130m. That trip was in August, which was not his usual travelling time, but it was certainly fortuitous as the plants were in full bloom (Figs. 1–3). This particular location contained many plants which had formed large clumps. Even offsets that had become detached had formed aerial roots and were on the point of rooting down. In October 2018, he found this species again in Oaxaca, which is about 1,500km south-east of Mazatlán. This location was near the archaeological site of Guiengola (Fig. 4). M. beneckei was growing together with Melocactus curvispinus, in partly and fully shaded situations, and had formed large clumps just as at the other location. However, because of the time of year, there were no plants in flower, but the surrounding vegetation was still abundant. Fig. 1 Large clumps of M. beneckei in flower at Mazatlán 5 Fig. 2 M. beneckei in flower and showing the attractive spination Fig. 3 Close-up of flower 6 Fig. 4 M. beneckei at the Guiengola location in 2018 Almost 14 months later, in December 2019, he visited this second location again and was surprised by how the habitat had changed. Obviously because of the dry season, the shrubs were leafless and everything was brighter and more open compared to October 2018, but the biggest surprise was that he found far fewer plants of M. beneckei. Previously he would almost trip up over the plants but now he had to walk further and look closer in order to find them. It was as if the total population had diminished by 50% and this was a mystery to him. Al- though the reason was not clear, it was obvious that the gravel road leading to the site had been partly washed away by rains, and there was evidence of landslides around, so weather events may have played a role. There were still many plants present and he hopes that the population will recover over the coming years. Finally Daniel provides a tip for cultivation of this species. He used to keep his plants in the shade in order to emulate habitat conditions but they never flowered. Now he keeps them on a high shelf in the greenhouse, provides a minimum winter temperature of 10°C, and they flower much better. The original article entitled ‘1,500 Luftlinie voneinander entfernt – Mammillaria beneckei an zwei Standorten beobachtet’ by Daniel Beck, was published in Mitteilungsblatt des Arbeitskreises für Mammillarienfreunde e.V. 44(3): 160–165 (2020). All photos by Daniel Beck. 7 Mammillaria columbiana by Alain Buffel I saw this species at several places in Columbia, most of the time growing in small groups, seldom solitary plants, but never in large quantities. They seem to prefer small rocky outcrops and always grow in the shade of other plants, although this could be because we travelled to Columbia during the beginning of the wet-season, (Oct/Nov 2019). The plant in the photo was among the hairiest I saw, and was photographed beside the road from Villa De Leyva towards Cucaita, just east of the small town Sachica in the Boyaca Departement at an altitude of 2,428m.