Pelecyphora sneedii

Pelecyphora sneedii, also called Sneed's pincushion cactus and the carpet foxtail cactus, is a rare small cactus endemic to the Chihuahuan Desert of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Britton and Rose first described it in 1923 as Escobaria sneedii, naming it for J. R. Sneed, who collected the type specimen in the Franklin Mountains of Texas, and it has since moved between genera as molecular studies reorganised its family. The plant grows to about 27 centimetres tall, though often only a few centimetres show above ground, and in some populations it branches into as many as 250 stems. Dense areoles of white spines cover it, and it blooms from March to June with flowers that range from white and cream to pale rose-pink. It usually grows on steep, rocky limestone slopes in desert scrub and sometimes in coniferous woodland. Heavy collecting for the cactus trade, habitat loss and wildfire threaten it, and two of its varieties are listed under United States federal law.