Xerophyte

Habit

It branches at the base and forms clumps of short chunky columnar shoots that can lay sideways with time. In young plants the shoots are like thick spheres and difficult to recognise as belonging to an Oreocereus.

Central Spines

3-5, stout awllike-like up to 5 cm yellow, orange, orange-red or brown, dark tipped, protruding through the fine, woolly, hair-like radial spines..

Flowers

Up to 4 cm long pink to violet red and semi-tubular in shape.

Blooming Season

Summer.

Ribs

15-25, low, strongly tuberculate.

Stem

6-10 cm in diameter, at first almost globular, then up to1 m tall (usually less than 50 cm), light-green with a dense, cocoon-like covering of wool (actually radial spines that have evolved to resemble "hairs"), which entirely covers the stem and from which spines emerge.

Radial Spines

Oreocereus trolliiSN|3392]]SN|3392]] has 10 to 15 very fine creamy-white or greyish modified spines up to 7 cm long that look like hair or wool.

Fruits

Globose.