Xerophyte

Central Spines

1 to 20 stouter, pungent, usually (1-)2-3,5(-7) cm long, dark-tipped, developed only on plants of flowering-size, usually white to grey with dark or blackish tips.

Flowers

Apical, project beyond the spines, (4-)6-7(-9) cm long , to 4 cm in diameter, tubular, bilaterally symmetrical to nearly regular, limb scarcely oblique, with a long slender tube; scales on ovary and tube few, small, ovate, naked in their axil. The segments acute, scarlet to salmon to purplish crimson. Anthers yellow. Stigma-lobes green.

Spines

Variable, white, straw-coloured to pale brown, grey with age.

Ribs

(14-)25-30, tuberculate.

Stem

Generally single but occasionally many-stemmed, globular to broad cylindrical, 8-10(-20) cm in diameter, up to 30 cm high, green, practically covered by network of bristly spines lying flat to form close network and almost invisible under the numerous spines.

Radial Spines

Numerous ( 14 to 45) 8-40 mm long weak, bristly, glassy white to yellowish brown.

Fruits

Small, spherical to club shaped reddish-green

Areoles

Set closely together, with an abundance of wool when young, but without any when old.