Xerophyte

Habit

Solitary (unless injured) until very old age, or with few branches from ground level when old. This specie has a tuber-like taproot but it is not a geophyte as the apical meristem is above ground.

Description

Ancistrocactus megarhizusSN|792]]SN|792]] f. gonzalesi (Sclerocactus) is an unpublished catalogue name (nomen nudum) used by some seeds collectors and succulent traders to indicate a local or morphological form not easily differentiated from the standard Sclerocactus scheeriSN|788]]SN|788]] var. megarhizus.

Roots

Long, fleshy, tuber-like taproots with bulbous swellings, sometimes having bulbous secondary roots, frequently horizontally oriented.

Flowers

Bright green to yellowish with a brown midline. Flowering in February-March.

Spines

Radial spines 13-28 per areole, translucent yellowish, tips red-brown, longest spines 6 to 28 mm long; central spines 3-4 per areole; abaxial central spine tan to whitish 1 per areole, hooked terete or slightly flattened, generally whitish or light brown, 12-38 mm long; adaxial central spines (2-)3 per areole, brown to dark reddish brown, erect, straight, 19-50 mm long. Juvenile spines are all radials numerous, short, tightly appressed and more or less pectinate.

Stem

Cylindric to club-shaped, or spherical, up to 17 cm tall, 5-8 cm in diameter. Seedlings and immature plants often have narrowly cylindrical stems. With age, the stems broaden distally.