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 missouriénsis, 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 
Cuphea petiolata, Koehne 
(Parsénia petioldta, 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 
