Mammillaria bartschella shumannii


Description: Small clumping plants with greyish-green bodies, sometime with up to 40 stems in a single cluster.
Flowers: Relatively large (2,5-4 cm in diameter) purplish pink, presumably attractive to hummingbirds.
Blooming season: Summer.

M. schumannii was once placed in the segregate genus Bartschella because of its fruit anatomy and large pink flowers located at the top of the plant. The fruit are red, thin-skinned and often break off from a basal pore rather than falling whole (like in most Mammillaria).

Cultivation: it is best to keep the plants outside where the temperature can rise to over 30 C with no harm to the plant. It likes a winter's rest and should be kept almost completely dry during the winter months, If the soil is allowed to be dry for too long root loss could follow but equally the same result would occur if the plants are both wet and cold. From March onwards the plant will begin to grow and watering should be increased gradually until late May when the plant should be in full growth. Water regularly during the summer so long as the plant pot is allowed to drain and not sit in a tray of water. During hot weather you may need to water the plants more frequently so long as the plant is actively growing. From late September watering should be reduced to force the plant to go in to a state of semi dormancy, by October you should be back in to the winter watering regime.
Need full sun avoiding only the harshest summer sun, if kept too dark they may become overly lush and greener and could be prone to rotting due to over watering.
Grown specimens resist to -4°C for a short time, but it is best to keep above 5° C to avoid ugly spots on the plant epidermis.

Some of the information in this description has been found at desert-tropicals.com, llifle.com and cactus-art.biz