Xerophyte

Central Spines

1 - 2, porrect (extended outward or horizontally), hooked, stout, brown or yellow, with dark tips, 11-20 mm long . The hooked central spines are turned counterclockwise in the areoles around the stem.

Seeds

black.

Description

Small branched or (generally) unbranched in the wild. The branch (if present) are basal and not numerous, seldom rooting.

Roots

Diffuse, upper portion not enlarged.

Tubercles

Cylindrical, becoming conical, somewhat incurved.9-18 × 3-9 mm, arranged in 8 and 13 spirals, protruding 12-15 mm axils appearing naked.

Flowers

Around the apex of the plant 2-3 × 1.5-2 cm; outermost tepal margins densely fringed, inner tepals pinkish white with sharply defined magenta midstripes, with a broad open throat.; style pink, stigma lobes bright red to red-purple, orange, or magenta.

Blooming Season

June and July.

Spines

Rather dense, partly obscuring the stem brightly colored than M. grahamii yellowish, pale pinkish tan, or brown (smaller spines paler), tipped dark chestnut brown to blackish, glabrous, sometimes ± pubescent when young.

Stem

Globose to ovoid, firm, grey-green or blue-green, sometimes reddish in axils, 6 - 7 cm high, 10 - 12 cm in diameter; cortex and pith not mucilaginous; latex absent.

Radial Spines

8 - 15, yellow becoming white, with dark tips, slender, needle-like, to 12 mm long.

Fruits

Bright orange-red, spheric to obovoid, 5-7 × 4-4.5 mm, filaments are pink, 3 mm long remaining beneath the spines, juicy only in fruit walls; floral remnant weakly persistent.

Areoles

1.5 mm in diameter, and typically 10 mm apart.