Missouri Foxtail Cactus

Pelecyphora missouriensis

Missouri Foxtail Cactus (Pelecyphora missouriensis) is a small native cactus, a spiny ball often half buried in the ground, that blooms in May and June with pale yellow-green flowers. Its shiny red berries hang on through the winter and are easiest to spot the next spring. In the Black Hills it grows on dry prairie and stony hillsides, and the 1986 plant survey of Jewel Cave National Monument lists it.

Free photos from other sources

Missouri Foxtail Cactus: Two pale yellow flowers and a bud on top of a spiny ball — Escobaria missouriensis. Larry Jensen, CC BY 4.0, resized. Get it at the source

Missouri Foxtail Cactus: Pale yellow flowers with pinkish petal stripes in prairie grass — Escobaria missouriensis. Brian Dickerson, CC0 1.0. Get it at the source

Missouri Foxtail Cactus: Pale yellow-green flower on top, with red berries among white spines — Escobaria missouriensis. Matt Lavin, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized. Get it at the source

Missouri Foxtail Cactus: Shiny red berries among white spines — Escobaria missouriensis. John Gaskin, CC0 1.0. Get it at the source

Missouri Foxtail Cactus: Low clump nearly hidden in grass and litter, dotted with red berries — Escobaria missouriensis. Brian Dickerson, CC0 1.0. Get it at the source

Missouri Foxtail Cactus: Small clump of spiny balls in rocky soil, white spines in flat stars — Escobaria missouriensis. Jo Roberts, CC BY 4.0, resized. Get it at the source

Quick facts
Family	Cactaceae · Cactus
Status	Native perennial
Blooms	May and June
Height	2–8 cm (¾–3 in)
Where	Dry, sunny prairie, stony grassland and openings in ponderosa pine, often on limestone or other sedimentary rock
Also called	Missouri Pincushion, Nipple Cactus, Missouri Corycactus
Synonym	Escobaria missouriensis, Coryphantha missouriensis, Mammillaria missouriensis, Neobesseya missouriensis
Listed	Wyoming ranks it S2 (imperiled). South Dakota does not rank it.
Traditional use	Blankinship (1905) records that the Crow ate the ripe red fruit.

Roots, seeds & germination

Root: Spread-out fibrous roots or a short taproot, and clumps can root from the base of side branches. The stem sits deep in the soil and pulls down in winter until its flat top is nearly level with the ground.

Seed: The fruit is a small, firm, orange-red to scarlet berry 6.5–10 mm (¼–⅜ in) long. It forms in summer but stays on the plant over winter and ripens to its brightest red in late winter and spring. The seeds inside are black, 1.4–2.2 mm, and deeply pitted.

Germination: No study of wild Plains seed was found. A cactus growers' reference reports that the seed has no dormancy and sprouts best at about 25 °C (77 °F) on gritty, well-drained soil kept humid for the first couple of weeks. Seedlings grow slowly.

How do you identify Missouri Foxtail Cactus?

Look for a single low, green ball or flat-topped stem, sometimes a small clump, 2–7.5 cm (¾–3 in) across and nearly flush with the ground. Each bump ends in a flat, star-shaped cluster of 6–20 thin white to pale tan spines lying close against the stem, usually with no central spine, so the plant looks like a green ball under a loose white net. The flowers are pale greenish-yellow, often with a green, pink or brown stripe down each petal, and the small scarlet berries last through winter. Spinystar has bright magenta to rose-pink flowers, stout central spines sticking out of each cluster, and green fruit that ripens in late summer.

When does it bloom?

May and June.

Where does it grow?

Dry, sunny, open ground: shortgrass and mixed-grass prairie, stony hillsides and grassy openings in ponderosa pine woodland, often on limestone, sandstone or shale rather than granite. NPSpecies lists it at Wind Cave, Jewel Cave and Devils Tower. Herbarium specimens come from Pennington, Lawrence, Fall River and Meade counties in South Dakota and Crook County, Wyoming, and Custer State Park and Wind Cave hold many photo records.