Star cactus (Astrophytum asterias)

This plant belongs to the genus Astrophytum in the family Cactaceae. Its scientific name is Astrophytum asterias.

The plant is flat and usually sits flush with the soil; at most the part above ground is a low dome. The stem is shiny and sparsely speckled with small bright-white hair tufts. There are usually 8 ribs, very low and almost flat, and the areoles carry yellow or grey wool but no spines. The flowers open wide and are long-woolly on the outside. It flowers from March to May, and sporadically after summer rain.

One of its English common names is star-peyote, because it looks a little like peyote. Peyote's stem, however, is very soft and a uniform pale blue-green, while this plant's stem is hard, speckled and slightly shiny, so the two are actually easy to tell apart.

Wild populations occur in southern Texas and in the Mexican states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, in grassland, shrubland and thorn scrub, on gravelly slopes or deep soil on flats. North of Mexico it is extremely rare, and is currently known only from Starr County, Texas.

The IUCN Red List assesses it as Vulnerable, with a decreasing population. The threats include clearing for agriculture, collecting, and problems caused by native species and disease, and international horticultural trade is also recorded. The assessment was last carried out in 2009, with an amended version published in 2017.

It is listed in CITES Appendix I, effective since 1987. Appendix I is the most strictly controlled level of CITES.