Silken

Another beauty today, Mammillaria bombycina.  This species is native to central western Mexico, growing on slopes and cliffs in high elevation oak forests.

I absolutely love the fringed edges on the petals.



This is the first cactus I ever bought with hooked spines.  For the first couple months after I discovered cacti, I very smugly said that I was I only going to get the more non-lethal species with flatter spines.  Hooked-spine varieties are much too annoying, and I don't see why I would every get any of those, I said.

Then Emma and I were in TriCities last spring and I saw this one in a Lowes, and once I saw the beautiful clusters of white spines I decided that hooked or not, this plant needed to come home with me.  It hooked my thumb quite painfully before we even got back to the car, but I didn't care.  It was pretty.


This is its first blooming for me, and the plant itself has almost doubled in size in a year.  I'm very proud of it.