Xerophyte

Seeds

White, 5 to 6 mm broad.

Description

Tephrocactus alexanderiSN|22328]]SN|22328]] is a small low depressed or erect succulent plant with some spherical branches forming spiny cushions.

Stem Segments

2,5-5 cm long, 2 to 3 cm thick, globose, egg-shaped or shortly cylindrical, greyish green tuberculate, covered with spines and readily detached.

Flowers

Large pinkish-white. Pericarpels bristly above.

Spines

4 to 15, up to 4 cm long, white below, dark above or with black tips, fading to dull grey as the stems age, scurfy-pubescent even in age, straight, erect or pointing downward, more or less flexible, spreading, interlocking mostly thin a few stout.

Fruits

Dry, thin walled, red, obovoid, 2 cm. long, not spiny, but upper areoles bearing 2 to 8 long, white, erect, fine bristles to 1 cm overtopping the fruit; umbilicus of fruit depressed.

Areoles

Small, round, closely set 30-60 or more per segment and extending to base, most with spines.