Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Duncan's foxtail cactus

(Escobaria duncanii)

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Description

Escobaria duncanii is a species of plant in the genus Escobaria of the cactus family (Cactaceae). The specific epithet duncanii honors the American Frank Duncan on whose pit the species was discovered. Escobaria duncanii grows singly or in groups. The circular, almost spherical to obtusely conical green shoots reach heights of 2.5 to 6 centimeters and the same diameter. The shoots are covered by the dense spines. Their non-solid, cylindrical warts are up to 6 millimeters long. The 30 to 75 white spines have a darker tip and cannot be divided into central and radial spines. They are slender, fragile, needle-like, straight to curved or twisted, and up to 2 centimeters long. The pink flowers are up to 3 centimeters long. The red, club-shaped fruits have lengths of up to 10 millimeters.Escobaria duncanii is distributed in the United States in southern New Mexico and western Texas. The first description as Escobesseya duncanii by John Pinckney Hester was published in 1945. Franz Buxbaum placed the species in the genus Escobaria in 1960. Other nomenclatural synonyms are Escobaria duncanii (Hester) Backeb. (1961), Coryphantha duncanii (Hester) LDBenson (1969), Mammillaria duncanii (Hester) D.Weniger (1970, nom. inval. ICBN -Article 33.3), Escobaria dasyacantha var. duncanii (Hester) NPTaylor (1983) and Neobesseya duncanii (Hester) Lodé (2013).

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Caryophyllales
Family:Cactaceae
Genus:Escobaria
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