Andrew Dudley, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF · observed growing wild

Pelecyphora vivipara (Nutt.) D.Aquino & Dan.Sanchez

pincushion cactus, beehive cactus, pink pincushion cactus, purple ball cactus

Climate known 15 photographs Cactus or succulent

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

Pelecyphora vivipara is a species of cactus known by several common names, including spinystar, viviparous foxtail cactus, pincushion cactus and ball cactus. It is native to North America, where certain varieties can be found from Mexico to Canada. Most of these varieties are limited to the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts. The species epithet "vivipara" was likely a reference to the plants tendency to produce offsets, or "pups", which is known as vivipary.

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

About the genus · Pelecyphora

Pelecyphora, pincushion cactus or foxtail cactus is a genus of cacti, comprising 20 species. They originate from Mexico and the United States.

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

Family

Cactaceae

Described by

(Nutt.) D.Aquino & Dan.Sanchez

Native to

Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan +17

Wild records

1859 in range· 456 open

At a glance

Warmest month

30°C

Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

379mm/yr

8 wet months · peak Aug 59 mm (CHELSA)

Light

18–51DLI

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 Pelecyphora, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 379 mm a year, wettest August at 59 mm, driest January at 19 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 51 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -11.1 °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 ? neomexicana Engelm.; Cactus neomexicanus (Engelm.) Small; Cactus radiosus (Engelm.) J.M.Coult.; Cactus radiosus var. arizonicus (Engelm.) J.M.Coult.; Cactus radiosus var. deserti (Engelm.) J.M.Coult. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Pelecyphora, 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, March and May to October in the northern hemisphere (March and May to October 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 (273 mm of 379 mm) falls in March and May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.1 °C against a yearly mean of 10.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and September.

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 379 mm a year, wettest August at 59 mm, driest January at 19 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

379 mm a year at the habitat, 273 mm of it March and May to October. Wettest month August at 59 mm, driest January at 19 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 279 mm to 596 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: 18 to 51 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 51 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

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 -11.1 °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 -11.1 °C, the absolute minimum -19.7 °C, about 132 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -13.2 °C to 1.2 °C), warmest day 29.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -11.1 °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: 44 to 53% 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

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1041 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

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	6 / -3–14	8 / 1–16	12 / 6–20	17 / 13–25	22 / 18–29	28 / 23–33	30 / 26–34	29 / 25–33	25 / 20–30	18 / 13–25	11 / 4–19	5 / -2–14
Night °C	-6 / -13–1	-5 / -11–3	-2 / -6–6	3 / -1–10	8 / 5–15	13 / 9–19	16 / 13–22	16 / 12–21	11 / 8–18	5 / 2–12	-1 / -6–6	-6 / -12–1
Rain mm	19 / 11–44	20 / 10–51	28 / 17–54	25 / 13–56	30 / 10–77	30 / 8–87	56 / 25–85	59 / 30–90	38 / 26–59	32 / 19–48	20 / 13–40	22 / 12–46
DLI	20 / 10–23	27 / 17–29	36 / 26–39	44 / 35–47	49 / 40–52	51 / 43–54	46 / 44–50	42 / 38–45	37 / 28–39	29 / 18–32	21 / 11–25	18 / 8–21
RH %	53 / 49–62	52 / 48–60	50 / 44–57	47 / 40–53	46 / 37–54	44 / 35–55	49 / 40–53	51 / 42–54	49 / 43–54	49 / 44–55	50 / 46–58	52 / 49–61

Each figure is the median across the 1041 grid cells holding the 1552 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 1043:1296 (37.825, -115.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -19.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -11.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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 1041 distinct grid cells holding the 1552 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1043:1296 (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 38.00_-115.000, lapse-corrected -24 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1638 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.

NativeAlberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest

Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Map marker35.581, -106.132 · in the densest population, 1120 records (60% of those in range)

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1859 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 456 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 42 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 307 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1859 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Photographs: CK2AZ, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Trevor Harding, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Indio Brown, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); CH Hemphill, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Bob Miller, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Pelecyphora vivipara, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

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