Turbinicarpus mandragora, I had some of these for e few years and never knew what they were!
Thanks for the I.D.!!!

Waz

Turbinicarpus mandragora ssp subterraneus

Is that a toothpick right through the middle of it?

Alfonso,

I am sorry, your 'mandragora' is a Turninicarpus krainzianus v. minimus.
The Turb. viereckii looks very much like its white flowering var. major.
Your 'valdezianus' is actually T. pseudopectinata.
And your 'saueri?' is most probably a T. knuthianus.

The T. alonsoi is IDed correctly, however!

Jordi

Nice plants Alfonso! I think the mandragora is really a krainzianus minimus, and I think you are right on the viereckii (maybe ssp major?_

Saludos
Alex

Thank you for the correction of some wrong ID's.
Larry, the toothpicks are crossed under the plant to give some support.
Alfonso

I impressed my self today! LOL I got two correct ID's with Jordi, yeah!! Now I will stop for a few days :-)

Alex

I check with my "other" T. valdezianus and realy there is a difference between them. They sell me this one like T. valdezianus but it is T. pseudopectinatus
{{gwi:490895}}

and the last time I was in Saltillo I bought this other like T. valdezianus
{{gwi:490896}}
I think that this is right.
Alfonso

That flower isn't right for T. knuthianus and there are too few radial spines. Its not right for T. saueri either. Maybe a hybrid? Maybe not even a Turbinicarpus?

S'nB,

What makes you so sure? I think the flowers fit absolutely to knuthianus and the spines are different to what I remember from plants in Europe, but here they often look like these.

Alfonso,

What you bought before in the Desert Museum in Saltillo is the real T. valdeziana.

Jordi

Jordi, the stigma is weird on the "knuthianus", it has too many lobes. Maybe it is just an example where the collected and described specimens only represent some of the forms that exist, and Alfonso has a different one. I would like to see a closeup of the flower when it is fully open.

Shrubs n bulbs:
Here it is the new picture of what I tkink is a Turbinicarpus. Jordi says T. knuthianus. Maybe it helps to confirm the ID
{{gwi:490897}}

Alfonso

Sn'B,

Somehow you are right, there are by far too many stigma lobes for a T. knuthianus flower, as I know it. Also the spination is very white and regular. So, maybe it is a hybrid or a new taxon not yet described. If so, it would certainly belong to the complex of the recently described T. saueri varieties, gonzalezii, verduzcoi, septentrionalis and T. nieblae. But it doesn't match neither of those.

Jordi

Hey Jordi! I just checked my plants in the basement and both of the T. valdezianus have tiny white tufts near their crowns. These "tufts" weren't there the last time I checked them. I can only assume that these are pending flowers!

It's 57 deg. F and 50% humidity down there tonight. Should I move them upstairs to a windowsill or leave them in their cool environment? They are under lights that stay on for 14 hours, and they would only get about 9 hours of daylight upstairs. They would experience warmer, drier air upstairs but I don't want to shock them with a sudden change.

Amy

Amy,

The fact is that flowering time is often triggered by length of daylight. So those species which flower in winter are used to shorter days and a little cooler temperatures in habitat, too.
I would make a test. Move one upstairs and leave the other one in the basement. Thus for the next winter season you might learn what this species preferes. However, should you want to produce seeds of those it certainly will not work that way due to different flowering times. But that's not a problem, if you want seeds I'll send you some for free.

Jordi

Jordi:
I don´t know if it is the same in other nurseries, but every kind of cacti are flowering in the same displays, even the mother plants are mixed, so the cross polination could be the reason to have a large amount of hybrids.
Alfonso

..."those species which flower in winter are used to shorter days and a little cooler temperatures"...

Thanks Jordi, this makes perfect sense! Both plants are in the same pot, so I can't separate them. Well, I could, but I don't think this is the best time for that.

I'll bring them up tomorrow and put them in a south facing windowsill and watch the show. If the flowers show themselves, I'll be sure to post pictures.

Thanks again,
Amy