Escobaria missouriensis

It’s a spherical cactus, with a beautiful dark green stem, in which the prominent conical tubercles, slightly pointed, are immediately noticeable. At the top of each, from round white areoles, thin and straight radial spines sprout, bright white, sometimes tinged with brownish-reddish tips. The central spines are not always present, but if they are they are always dark, thin and short. It’s a very interesting cactacea, it posseses an incredible resistance to temperatures much below 0 ° C, which is why it can easily be grown even in Northern Europe, where few other plants would resist outdoors. What is most striking about Escobaria missouriensis is undoubtedly its large flower, of a very strange greenish-yellow color with pink or brown streaks, almost fluorescent and with pointed, extremely shiny fringed petals, as if they were made of silk.