Xerophyte

Central Spines

0 to 1 longer greyish to black up to 2 cm long.

Description

It is a large sprawling shrub or small tree with many compact, candelabra-like branches from a short woody trunk, 1,5-4 m in diameter and 1-4 metres tall. It is occasionally grown in pots but is less common in cultivation than the very similar but more frost-tolerant Myrtillocactus geometrizansSN|8050]]SN|8050]]. It lives only a few decades.

Flowers

Nocturnal and diurnal (closing late in the morning when temperatures raises), scented, 2,5 cm long and in diameter. Tepals, oblong, few (about 16) yellowish-cream to light green, the outer ones often tinged purple; filaments white; stygma lobes 5-6 white.

Blooming Season

In habitat plants flower throughout the year, while plants cultivated in temperate climate usually flower only during the favourable growing season mainly in early summer.

Stem

Trunk short, woody up to 30(-40) cm in diameter. The branches are slender, all nearly uniform in size up to 9 cm in diameter, erect or recurved inward in graceful arcs toward the centre of the plant, generally bluish-green in colour and have 6-8 obtuse ribs separated by shallow intervals.

Radial Spines

5, shorter of the same colour 5-15 mm long.

Fruits

Edible, spineless , red often tinged yellow or brown, juicy, slightly acidic, globular 12-18 mm in diameter which look and are used like currants.

Areoles

1-3 cm apart