Photo taken on Apr 24, 2016

Not long ago I found a new (to me) term in a description of some plant: “manageable size”. Nice term, isn't it? And here is a nice sample of “non-manageable size”. While colony-forming Mammillarias can be easily kept inside desired dimensions by simple pruning, in this case, the only tool for reducing occupied space is merciless uglifying surgery — the plant branches dichotomically, like a clubmoss. Sometimes twice at once. Interesting to note: there are several Mammillaria species with dichotomic branching and all of them have English (and French) common name “owl eye cactus”. I wonder, why.

So, in 2005 (top right photo) this was a small cutie with a nice single apex. In 2011 (bottom right) it suddenly smiled sadly and… in 2012 turned into a four-headed Heffalump. Ah, yes, it also got some genes from Humpty-Dumpty: the only leg often fails to keep four heavy heads upright. I don't know what sense this construction has in nature: is it for pushing aside the competitors? By the way, the spines are very solid and well-attached to the areoles, meaning that the cactus can cause a real pain when falling on someone. Now I'm observing my Heffalump turn into an eight-headed Hydra — you can see that the apexes have already split… Maybe I should just relax and stop trying to maintain it in a vertical position? Let it lie, why not…

Still, I love this cactus. In 2015 I was too late to see the flowers: by the end of April, when I drew it out from the wintering place, I saw only dried flowers. This year we set out for the garden a little bit earlier, and it was early enough to see the end of the blooming time.

If I (together with cacti-experts on message boards) am not mistaken with the id, this plant belongs to an endangered species, endemic to a 2,500 km² range in the state of Querétaro in Mexico. The main enemies are usual: illegal collection and habitat loss. Probably, cacti growers are the last hope for this species :/.

owl-eye cactus, owl-eye pincushion Mammillaria parkinsonii