Friends, this is the wild flower of the pincushion cactus that blooms in June in the Badlands.  They tend to grow in small  groups that are few and far between.   The plant is a small ball-shaped cactus and is often raised as a houseplant. But when discovered in the wild, you will marvel at their wonderful color.  I love their color and filled the frame with a macro lens.  When face to flower, I had to be careful not to get a prickly in the nose.  I especially like the backlighting in this image, seems to bring out the smaller spikes in the middle of the bloom.  You can better appreciate my macro techniques if you view the time-lapse of this cactus blooming on youtube, the link is  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKj6aUdImc  Below is a view of the bloom from overhead where you can see the cactus spines in the lower right hand corner of the image, enjoy.  til Tomorrow MJ