Location: South of Matehuala, San Luis Potosi

Ariocarpus hintonii LRM84, a typical plant showing the tubercle structure of this subspecies of A. bravoanus.

Comments

Ariocarpus bravoanus subsp. hintonii is extremely limited in distribution, occurring on very barren stony ground at two locations in San Luis Potosi. Plants at the location illustrated here were growing both in the open and in the shelter of occasional small shrubs and seedlings were fairly frequent. The site is frequented by goats, but these do not appear to noticeably damage the plants. In 1999 a number of plants had been attacked, possibly by rodents, which excavate the soil from the side of the plant and attack the root system, no such damage was observed in 2000, when the area had had far more rainfall, and food supplies were far more abundant. An interesting observation at this site was the sympatric occurrence of  A. retusus, no hybrids were seen, and it appeared that the A. retusus flower a few weeks earlier than the A. hintonii., See also A. retusus (Matehuala).