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Escobaria is a genus of low-growing cacti that range from the southernmost parts of central and western Canada through northern Mexico, with one species in Cuba.

The stems of Escobaria range from globose to cylindrical, and lack nectar-secreting glands; while ribs are absent, tubercles are present, tending to become corky and deciduous as they age. The flowers usually appear in spring and may have a variety of colors, while the fruits are almost always red. The seeds in this genus are notable for being deeply pitted.

Common species include the ball cactus E. missouriensis, widespread in grassland and forest west of the Mississippi, and the beehive cactus E. vivipara, distributed across the US and into Canada, first described by Nuttall in 1813.

Escobaria was defined by Nathaniel Britton and Joseph Rose in their major work The Cactaceae (1923); they named the genus for Rómulo Escobar and Numa Escobar The cacti of this genus bear many similarities to Coryphantha and Mammillaria. Two species were recently moved to Acharagma.

Species

• Escobaria albicolumnaria Hester 1941 - Silver-lace cob cactus, white column
• Escobaria alversonii (J.M. Coulter) N.P. Taylor 1997
• Escobaria chihuahuensis
• Escobaria cubensis
• Escobaria dasyacantha
• Escobaria deserti
• Escobaria duncanii (Hester) Backeberg 1961 - Duncan's snowball cactus
• Escobaria emskoetteriana
• Escobaria guadalupensis
• Escobaria hesteri
• Escobaria laredoi
• Escobaria lloydii
• Escobaria minima
• Escobaria missouriensis (Sweet) D.R. Hunt 1978 - ball cactus, cream cactus, Missouri pincushion
• Escobaria orcuttii
• Escobaria organensis
• Escobaria robinsorum
• Escobaria sandbergii
• Escobaria sneedii
• Escobaria tuberculosa
• Escobaria villardii
• Escobaria vivipara (Nuttall) Buxbaum 1951 - beehive cactus
• Escobaria zilziana

Reference

• Edward F. Anderson , The Cactus Family (Timber Press, 2001), pp. 307-314