Species
+

Astrophytum myriostigma Lem.

bishop's-cap, bishop's-cap cactus, bishop's-hat, bishop's-hood

Climate known 50 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Astrophytum myriostigma, the bishop's cap cactus, bishop's hat or bishop's miter cactus, is a species of cactus native to the highlands of northeastern and central Mexico.

Text from Wikipedia, “Astrophytum myriostigma”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Astrophytum

Astrophytum is a genus of six species of cacti, native to North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Astrophytum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
Lem.
Native to
Mexico Northeast
Wild records
340 in range· 222 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
450mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Sep 79 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Astrophytum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 450 mm a year, wettest September at 79 mm, driest March at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Astrophytum myriostigma subsp. glabrum Backeb.; Astrophytum myriostigma subsp. quadricostatum (H.Moeller) Kanfer; Astrophytum myriostigma subsp. tamaulipense Kanfer; Astrophytum myriostigma var. potosinum (Kanfer) Borg; Astrophytum myriostigma var. quadricostatum (H.Moeller) Baum and 1 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Astrophytum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (320 mm of 450 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 19.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 450 mm a year, wettest September at 79 mm, driest March at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

450 mm a year at the habitat, 320 mm of it May to September. Wettest month September at 79 mm, driest March at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 342 mm to 613 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.3 °C, the absolute minimum -4.3 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.3 °C to 10.8 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 9 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 450 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 96 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -4.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-4.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 25–45RH 54–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 96 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 19–2324 / 22–2527 / 25–2829 / 27–3030 / 27–3129 / 26–3028 / 25–2928 / 25–3026 / 24–2825 / 23–2724 / 22–2622 / 20–23
Night °C9 / 6–1110 / 8–1212 / 10–1415 / 12–1717 / 14–1918 / 15–2018 / 15–1918 / 15–1917 / 14–1915 / 12–1712 / 9–1410 / 7–12
Rain mm20 / 16–2611 / 9–1510 / 6–1329 / 23–3952 / 39–7059 / 41–8175 / 53–10655 / 40–7879 / 58–10937 / 28–5112 / 9–1711 / 9–16
DLI26 / 25–2832 / 31–3540 / 38–4244 / 42–4645 / 43–4643 / 42–4442 / 40–4441 / 40–4235 / 34–3632 / 31–3328 / 27–3025 / 24–27
RH %58 / 54–6056 / 52–5854 / 50–5655 / 51–5757 / 55–6060 / 57–6361 / 57–6560 / 57–6462 / 59–6660 / 57–6458 / 55–6058 / 55–60

Each figure is the median across the 96 grid cells holding the 111 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1336:1597 (23.175, -100.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 96 distinct grid cells holding the 111 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1336:1597 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_-100.000, lapse-corrected -3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1413 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Northeast
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.697, -100.256 · in the densest population, 332 records (98% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 340 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 222 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 7 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 229 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 340 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Astrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigmaAstrophytum myriostigma

Photographs: (c) P Gonzalez Zamora, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Astrophytum myriostigma, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A taxonomic backbone for the global synthesis of species diversity in the angiosperm order Caryophyllales
Patricia Hernández‐Ledesma, Walter G. Berendsohn, Thomas Borsch, Sabine von Mering (2015) · Willdenowia - Annals of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem
Flavonoid Function and Activity to Plants and Other Organisms
Tsukasa Iwashina (2003) · Biological Sciences in Space
Novel seed coat lignins in the C actaceae: structure, distribution and implications for the evolution of lignin diversity
Fang Chen, Yuki Tobimatsu, Lisa A. Jackson, Jin Nakashima (2012) · The Plant Journal
Contribución al conocimiento de las cactáceas mexicanas amenazada
Héctor M. Hernández, Hector Godinez A. (1994) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Tissue culture of ornamental cacti
Eugenio Pérez‐Molphe‐Balch, María del Socorro Santos-Díaz, Rafael Ramírez-Malagón, Neftalí Ochoa‐Alejo (2015) · Scientia Agricola
Seeds photoblastism and its relationship with some plant traits in 136 cacti taxa
Joel Flores, Enrique Jurado, Leonardo Chapa‐Vargas, Aldo Ceroni Stuva (2010) · Environmental and Experimental Botany
Seed traits and germination in the Cactaceae family: A review across Americas
Duniel Barrios, Jorge A. Sánchez, Joel Flores, Enrique Jurado (2020) · Botanical Sciences
To converge or not to converge in environmental space: testing for similar environments between analogous succulent plants of North America and Africa
Leonardo O. Alvarado‐Cárdenas, Enrique Martínez‐Meyer, Teresa Patricia Feria, Luis E. Eguiarte (2013) · Annals of Botany
El hábito y la forma de crecimiento en la tribu Cacteae (Cactaceae, Cactoideae)
Monserrat Vázquez-Sánchez, Teresa Terrazas, Salvador Arias (2012) · Botanical Sciences
Plantas vasculares endémicas de Coahuila y algunas áreas adyacentes, México
José ́Ángel Villarreal-Quintanilla, Juan Antonio Encina-Domínguez (2005) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Clonal propagation of cacti through axillary budsin vitro
Boris Vyskot, Z. JáRa (1984) · Journal of Horticultural Science
Anthocyanin synthesis potential in betalain-producing Caryophyllales plants
Masaaki Sakuta, Asuka Tanaka, Kaori Iwase, Mizuki Miyasaka (2021) · Journal of Plant Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Astrophytum 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.