LYTHRACEAE (LOOSESTRIFE FAMILY) 291 



Means of control 



Small areas may be removed by deep cutting from the roots with 

 a stout hoe or spud, before the maturing of the fruit. Turning the 

 sod with a plow at once destroys the plants. 



MISSOURI CACTUS 



Mamillaria missouriensis, Sweet 



Other English names: Nipple Cactus, Bird's-nest Cactus. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : May to June. 



Seed-time: The following spring. 



Range: South Dakota to Kansas and Texas. 



Habitat : Dry soil ; prairies, rocky foothills. 



Like the preceding species, this plant is a nuisance in pastures. 

 It is small, the stems often but one or two inches high, simple or 

 sometimes clustered in patches, the tubercles on its surface less 

 than a half-inch long, slightly grooved, rather loose, arranged in 

 spiral rows. Spines ten to twenty, nearly a half-inch long, gray 

 and bristly, radiating about a central, stouter, hairy spine, or the 

 latter may be lacking. Flowers reddish yellow, nearly an inch long 

 and of about the same width when fully expanded in bright sunlight, 

 the petals acute and bristle-tipped. Fruit red, nearly globular, 

 about the size of a pea. Seed black and finely pitted. 



Means of control the same as for Globe Cactus. 



CLAMMY CUPHEA 



Ciiphea petiolata, Koehne 

 (Parsonia petiolata, Rusby) 



Other English names : Clammy Loosestrife, Blue Waxweed, Tarweed, 



Red-stem, Sticky-stem. 

 Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : July to October. 

 Seed-time: August to November. 

 Range: Rhode Island to Ontario, Illinois, and Kansas, southward 



to Georgia and Louisiana. Most common in the South. 

 Habitat: Dry fields, meadows, pastures, roadsides, and waste land. 



An unpleasant, viscidly hairy, and homely weed, much too com- 

 mon in some localities. Cattle will not eat it and its deep-boring 



