Xerophyte

Central Spines

Usually absent.

Cephalium

3,5 cm tall, 4-6 cm in diameter, with cream-white to greyish-white wool and black bristles 1,5-2.5 cm long.

Flowers

Nocturnal lasting only a single night, and rapidly collapsing into mush the next morning, extremely fragrant, slender funnelform, up to to 7,5 cm long, white arising from the cephalium.

Blooming Season

Summer, it needs a good exposure to with some sun to bloom , so it's pretty rare to have blossoms when in cultivation in greenhouses. It is not unusual for this Melocactus to take 7 or more years before it starts blooming, but once it does, it should every year.

Ribs

mostly 13-15 low to acute up to 1,5 cm high, not or only slightly tuberculate, distinctly enlarged at the areoles and without acute sinuses between adjacent areoles on the same rib.

Stem

Low, flattened-globular, less than 7 cm tall (without cephalium) and about 10-12 cm in diameter light to dark green, with woolly cephalium.

Radial Spines

5(-6) conspicuous, pale grey to brown/black with darker tips, becoming grey with age, slightly recurved backwards, of which 2(-3) pointing upwards about 5 mm long, 2 lateral pointing dowmward about 1,5 cm long, and 1 lower spine up to 2,5 cm long, clawlike, somewat fleattened and up to 2 mm thick.

Fruits

Club shaped white or cream sometime with a pink tip, up to 3 cm long and 0,8 cm in diameter containing a few black seeds.

Areoles

Round to oval 5-8 on each rib on plants with cephalium.