Xerophyte

Central Spines

In some plants one central spine appears, but is usually absent. It is erect, 1,5-2 cm long.

Cephalium

Up to 8 cm tall , 4-6 cm in diameter, with cream-white wool.

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. The position of the stigma is 3/4 up the secondary stamens.

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

About 14, sharp 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 10 cm tall (without cephalium about 3,5-8 cm), about 14 cm in diameter, epidermis is dark green, with woolly cephalium.

Radial Spines

5 to 7, grey with a black tip, becoming grey with age, about 6 mm long (upwards ones) and 16 mm long (downwards ones) and up to 2 mm thick, the lateral almost straight while the lowest pointing downwards, clawlike and recurved backwards to the plant.

Fruits

Club shaped pink/white, up to 3 cm long and 0,8 cm in diameter containing a few black seeds.

Areoles

Oval about 9 on each rib on plants with cephalium.