Mammilaria guelzowiana Rio Nazca MG670    
This species is always a great show, but I've really come to appreciate it for starting to flower at such a small size, somewhere between a golf ball and a tennis ball. The plant gets big, like two or three grapefruit, or pomelo, even, but the flowers stay about the same size. However, the plant is covered all the days of the year in very sharp hooked spines, and if you get close, you get to tear some of the plant away as you get hooked. I think one should keep a very few of the species for seeds and only show the tiny seedlings in flower. You have to try to get spined by the little guys.   (27/72)   

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