Xerophyte

Habit

Plants solitary or freely clustering.

Central Spines

3-4, darker than the radials brownish at tips, to 13 mm long.

Flowers

Yellow at the apex and large, up to 3 cm long; inner perianth-segments acute; style longer than the stamens; stigma-lobes 7 to 9, purple; scales of the pericarpels and floral tubes with wool and bristles.

Spines

Usually thin and delicate pale and spreading, rather weak to the touch.

Ribs

16-20, obtuse, crenate, with wavy margins, dull, glaucous-green.

Stem

At first globular, glaucous bright green, often depressed apically, but as with so many other Notocacti they become progressively more cylindrical as they grow older and can ultimately attain a height of 20 cm (or more) in cultivation and up to 20 cm in diameter.

Radial Spines

15-20, white to brown, hairlike, to 8 mm long.

Areoles

Approximate.