Xerophyte

Description

It is a small segmented succulent that grows into mounds of tiny stems or joints. In cultivation grows as a small erect segment chains. In habitat the plants stay smaller because the uppermost segments are detachable and drop easily. It is related to Tephrocactus articulatusSN|7330]]SN|7330]] and reminds some spineless forms of it.

Stem Segments

Grey-green, dark-green or brownish, globose to ovoid, up to 2.5 cm long and wide (but up to 4 cm long or more in cultivation), fragile, spineless with dense glochids. The tubercles are somehow raised but not sharply delimited.

Flowers

Dirty white or very pale pink a little hyaline with a green centre and green filaments. Pericarp is comparatively small and has areoles furnished with bristle-like spines as strong as the one on the young shoots.

Spines

Spineless.

Fruits

Dry, thin walled.Small clumping segmented succulent, In cultivation grows as a small erect segment chains. In habitat the plants stay smaller because the uppermost segments are detachable and drop easily.

Areoles

Very ornamental with bright yellow-brown glochids and white felt.