Xerophyte

Central Spines

1 porrect and straight.

Description

It is a stout barrel cactus, which is solitary when young, very rarely slowly clustering in age.

Note

Desert populations, unlike the eastern plants, have longer central spines that project stiffly outward.

Flowers

5-6 × 5-6 cm. Flowers range from white thru rose-pink to pale silvery-pink, with red throats in late spring and can appear on plants around 10cm in diameter.

Spines

Small but strong pale tan, pink, reddish to grey, terete to flattened, annulated, not hiding stem surfaces.

Stem

Pale grey-green (desert populations) to grass green (eastern populations) with numerous ribs , above-ground portion flat-topped, hemispheric in old age but usually deep-seated, flush with soil surface 30 cm in diameter, 20 cm high

Radial Spines

(5-)6-7 per per areole, mostly decurved

Fruits

Scarlet or crimson, spheric to ovoid, 15-50 × 15-40 mm, fleshy.