Escobaria sneedii var. leei (Lee's Pincushion Cactus)

Family

CACTACEAE

Scientific Name with Author

Escobaria sneedii Britton & Rose var. leei (Rose ex Bdecker) D. Hunt

Synonyms

ESCOBARIA LEEI ROSE EX BDECKER; CORYPHANTHA SNEEDII (BRITTON & ROSE) A. BERGER VAR. LEEI (ROSE EX BDECKER) L. BENSON; CORYPHANTHA SNEEDII VAR. LEEI

Common Name

Lee's Pincushion Cactus

Agency Status
USFWS	State of NM	USFS	BLM	Navajo Nation	State Rank	Global Rank	R-E-D Code	NMRPTC Status	Strategy Status
LT	E				S2	G2G3QT2Q	3-3-3	R	SS

Rare Plant Conservation Scorecard Summary
Overall Conservation Status	Documented Threats	Actions Needed
WEAKLY CONSERVED	Fire & fire suppression, Collection	genetic/taxonomic studies, monitoring

To download the Scorecard click here.

Counties

EDDY

Description

Stems forming small dense clusters, the individual stems mostly 1-2 cm thick and to 8 cm tall; tubercles on mature stems with upper surface grooved; spines about 30-90 per areole, typically white often brown at tip, fading to gray, slender and bristle-like, mostly about 1-2.5 mm long, radiating from areole and appressed against plant, sometimes with one to few short porrect centrals; flowers not opening widely, to 1.5 cm wide (usually smaller); tepals pale yellowish to pinkish or nearly white, usually with midribs darker; stigmas white to pink; fruit elongate, 1-1.5 cm long, green to somewhat reddish; seeds about 0.8 mm long, kidney-shaped, pitted, brown, with hilum lateral. Flowers in April.

Similar Species

The variety leei differs from other Escobaria in densely clumping habit, small stem size, and tightly pectinate spination.

Distribution

New Mexico, Eddy County, Guadalupe Mountains.

Habitat

Primarily cracks in limestone in areas of broken terrain and steep slopes of Chihuahuan desert scrub; 1,200-1,500 m (4,000-5,000 ft).

Remarks

In Flora of North America, Volume 4 (2003), all taxa in the Escobaria sneedii Complex, which includes Escobaria sneedii var. leei, have been submerged into a single highly variable species, Coryphantha sneedii, without recognition of subspecific taxa. The NMRPTC notes the subjectivity involved in taxonomic decisions within this complex and will continue to consider E. sneedii var. leei to be a distinct entity. In discussions at the 2005 New Mexico Rare Plant Technical Council Meeting, Council members concluded that E. sneedii var. leei represents a population of plants that is geographically defined and sufficiently distinct from other closely related populations that it deserves taxonomic recognition. Although the population of E. sneedii var. leei is distinct as a whole, it may be difficult to assign some plants to a specific taxon without detailed analysis because it intergrades with E. guadalupensis that is found at higher elevations toward the sourthern end of the Guadalupe Mountains (Baker and Johnson 2000). Some call these intermediate plants E. sneedii var. sneedii.

This is apparently a neotenic variety of the species in which juvenile spination is retained throughout the life of the plant.

Conservation Considerations

This species is common in its very restricted area of distribution. It is popular with collectors and has been subject to commercial collecting in the past, but is now propagated commercially on a large scale and is readily available. Since 2010 more than half of the habitat for this species has burned in wildfires. Mortality has been documented up to 40%, with no signs of recovery after 4 years of monitoring.

Important Literature

*New Mexico Native Plants Protection Advisory Committee. 1984. A handbook of rare and endemic plants of New Mexico. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

*Benson, L. 1982. The cacti of the United States and Canada. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.

*Britton N.L. and J.N. Rose. 1923. The Cactaceae IV. Carnegie Institution, Washington D.C.

*Weniger, D. 1970. Cacti of the Southwest. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee. 2003. Flora of North America, volume 4. Oxford University Press, New York.

Baker, M.A. and R.A. Johnson. 2000. Morphometric analysis of Escobaria sneedii var. sneedii, E. sneedii var. leei, and E. guadalupensis (Cactaceae). Systematic Botany 25(4):577-587.

Roth, D. 2016. Lee's Pincushion Cactus (Escobaria sneedii var. leei). Post-fire Monitoring Report. Unpublished report prepared by EMNRD-Forestry Division, Santa Fe, NM for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Region 2, Albuquerque, NM.

Information Compiled By

David J. Ferguson 1998; last updated 2016

For distribution maps and more information, visit Natural Heritage New Mexico