To me that looks like the same plant just grown in a richer mix and both smaller and on a younger stem. Its very distinctly huanucoensis. Lower on the large plant pictured at the top you'd find that same distinctive spine array just not the tip spination which seems a nutritional thing.
Give it a more mineral rich blend with less food sources, more mycorrhizal and bacterial support and less space around its roots and it will get fatter and more typical. Providing a more natural soil mix, restricting the space around the base of the plant and ceasing to repot once they get into 5 gallon pots unless the stem fills it is a really good thing for getting container grown plants to look less pumped and encouraging flowering.
The Huntington's gets that nice blush on it due to having solid shade for part of the day and sun for part of the day and being watered with a sprinkler.
Its a rather variable plant depending on where it gets grown. Grow it in more shade and it can get almost unrecognizable as it can almost stop putting on any spines.
I should get busier with uploading images from different gardens.
Sacred Succulents got theirs from Ed Gay who was a friend of Johnson and Hutchison and other old timers (all of whom are now dead).
Here is a shot of one that is the same clone as Michael's pictured above but being grown in a different mix
HUANUCOENSIS_4.jpg 64.28K
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Edited by trucha, 03 September 2007 - 08:33 AM.