Xerophyte

Central Spines

1 to 3, strong, dark, frequently red; the upper spine usually attains a length of 3 cm and is often hooked and thickened basally (but sometime the longest of them may reach the length of 4-6 cm).

Description

It is a small cactus that usually grows solitary or in groups.

Roots

Thick taproot.

Flowers

Arising from the basal tubercles on the side of the plant, up to 7 cm wide, their colors is very variable, going from yellow to orange, tomato-red, vine-red and also happening through all the imaginable tones of violet. All of them have in common that the hymen (or throat ring of the flower) is always of a very dark purple-violet to black, thickened at the edge and glossy. The stamens are purple, the anthers yellow.

Spines

Of different length, usually straight or slightly bent, directed upward, dark brown to blackish in youth, later grey.

Ribs

10-14, compressed, running downward and divided into slanting tubercles whose arrangement creates the impression of a wavy line.

Stem

Soft, about 5 to 7 cm across, gray-green to dark green, at first spherical, egg-shaped, then elongate as they ages. The crown is slightly depressed and covered with whitish wool

Radial Spines

Approximately 10 or less, about 1 cm long.

Areoles

3 mm across, with grey-white felt.