Xerophyte

Central Spines

One (but usually absent) erect up to 5 mm long.

Description

Pterocactus reticulatus is a small clumping cactus with large undergroung tuberose root.

Roots

Tuberose up to 20 cm long.

Flowers

Up to 5 cm in diameter. Pearl-white with a pale pink tinge with a dark-red stigma. The flowers are at the tip of side segments and hardly at the tip of the main segments like those of Pterocactus megliolli.

Glochids

Very small.

Stem

Formed by brown, olive green, greyish-purple or whitish-grey segments. The side segment are (ususually) unbranched, rather thick up to 2 cm in diameter, 2-3 cm long, globose to pear shaped with a net-like (= reticulate) pattern of romboid tubercles.

Radial Spines

Very few (up to 6) or absent, pectinate, whitish to brownish, 2 to 5 mm long.

Fruits

Borne laterally, often the bigger than the sterile segments. Globose up to 2,5 cm in diameter.