Xerophyte

Central Spines

Usually absent, or 1 to 4 erected.

Seeds

Up to 1 mm brownish-red.

Description

Gymnocalycium monvilleiSN|11438]]SN|11438]] is well-known in cultivation and particularly priced for its pink flowers and characteristic strong spination. It is quite variable and several unnecessary varietal names have appeared in the past.

Flowers

Are some of the largest in this genus, often growing larger than the plant!, funnel-shaped 4 to 8 cm long and wide, pink, white flushed with pink or, in some forms, pure white, and often double petaled. Scales on the ovary broad and rounded, their margins scarious.

Spines

Stout, thick, slightly curved, yellow with usually reddish bases, often translucent , but also orange, black or reddish.

Ribs

10-17(-20), broad, obtuse, tuberculate with chin like protrusions, especially above, acute.

Stem

Flattened or globular, dark-green, grey-green to olive green, up to 20 cm in diameter, up to 8 cm tall. (but in cultivation plants can grow up to 30 cm in diameter)

Fruits

Green that became yellowish at maturity, globose, up to 2 cm in diameter.

Habit

Simple or eventually forming large clumps.

Flower Buds

Short ovoid and bullet-shaped, covered with imbricate scales.

Blooming Season

Summer, It takes 5-6 years from seed before flowers.

Radial Spines

5-7 up to 12, but usually less in young plants, 3-4 cm long, spreading, somewhat flattened against the body, stout, yellowish or whitish with a reddish tinge at the base, the longest one 3 cm long.

Areoles

Elliptic, 10 mm long.