Xerophyte

Central Spines

One, stout, pungent, rigid, 1,5-2,5(-4) cm long, sometimes with 2-3 additional shorter and thinner ones, grey with a darker brownish tip, rarely completely grey. The spines have a rough surface.

Seeds

0,7–1 mm long and up to 0,8 mm wide. Testa dark reddish brown to black, finely tuberculate. The area of the hilum is oval, whitish and has a small border fringe.

Subgenus Microsemineum Schütz.

Note

There is some question as to the correct spelling of the epithet paediophilum (paidion – child, philos – friend); Ferdinand Plesnik (1977) lists it as paediophylum and Hunt (1999) lists it as pediophilum.

Flowers

White to pale pink with reddish throat, 4,5-6(-8) cm long, 5-6(-8) cm in diameter at anthesis. Buds cream-coloured to yellowish. Pistil and stigma-lobes pink (not white). Filaments pink spreading across the base of the flower. Basal filaments adpressed against the style, uppermost ones protruding above the style.

Blooming Season

Mid summer.

Ribs

Mostly 7, occasionally up to 10, up to 26 mm hight, rounded, more pronounced in old plants ans slightly tubercled.Old plants have a crosswise bulge above the areole.

Stem

Depressed globose to shortly cylindrical, dull, light to dark green about 5-8(-12) cm diameter and 10-20 tall and branching profusely from the base.

Radial Spines

5-9, needle-like, awl shaped, straight, the lower ones often longer, up to 30 mm long, reddish brown, later grey with a brownish tip.

Fruits

Oval to spherical 5-18 mm long, 5-15 mm in diameter, green to blue-green with pinkish scales and juicy. When ripe, the fruit splits open lengthwise and the pulp is white.