Description

Stem to 6cm~diam, rising no more than 1.5cm above ground level in habitat, tubercles in 5:8 spirals, dark olive green, total length of tubercles c 20mm, verrucose part of adaxial surface 8-11mm long, 11-15mm wide, with a central, woolly areolar groove and two very distinct, perfectly straight, glabrous lateral grooves 0.5-1.0mm wide, remainder densely and finely verrucose, with a pale, almost crystalline appearance, edges acute not rounded, the tubercles nearly triangular in cross section, apex acute and well-defined Flowers c 3.5 x 4cm, pinkish magenta Fruit 2O x 5mm, pale red. Seeds 1.1-1.4(-1.5) x O.95 -1.2mm, testa black, tuberculate.

A bravoanus hintonii flowering in August, it is frequently the earliest species of the genus to bloom in cultivation.

A. bravoanus hintonii, a grafted plant flowering for the first time, the central fissure develops with maturity.

Comments

Ariocarpus bravoanus subsp. hintonii is superficially similar to a three fissured A. fissuratus of the Northern type. It is however geographically remote from these plants, and possesses a totally different epidermal structure. The relationship to A. bravoanus is much closer and this has prompted Anderson to place A. hintonii as a sub-species of A. bravoanus rather than as a variety of A. fissuratus,. Indeed some plants in the A. bravoanus habitat have a marked resemblance to A. hintonii and, as commented on under A. bravoanus, these two may well represent extremes of the same species. The tubercles of both sub-species are considerably taller than those of A. fissuratus. Ariocarpushintonii is one earliest plants of the genus to flower in cultivation. This early flowering makes it easy to set seed on, at least in the UK where lower autumnal temperatures seem to reduce pollen release and acceptance. in the later part of the flowering season.