Xerophyte

Seeds

Frosted black, about 1.2 mm long, 0.8 mm wide, 0.5 mm thick, dorsally strong-bulges; Testa very fine grained and roughly ribbed. Hilum oval, white.

Roots

Short, with a thick tap-root beet with sometimes a thinner neck.

Flowers

Apical, odorless, approx 33 mm long, 30mm wide open, funnel-form to campanulate. Pericarpel ca. 7 mm long, grass green, with tiny narrow yellowish scales and dull white wool. Nectary pale green, tubular, 3 mm high, 4 mm wide, half closed by the stamens bases.Tube funnel-form, about 1 cm high, inside pale green, outside grass green, richly scaled to the top with whitish, straight, almost piercing bristles. Stamens pale greenish-yellowish, the lowest ones 6 mm long, the uppermost ca 10 mm. Anther lemon yellow. Style 2 cm long, bottom white, topsalmon coloured, stigma lobes about 11, nearly smooth, yellow, 3-4 mm long. Tepals lanceolate, ca. 15 mm long, 5 mm broad, base slightly narrower, rounded, apex toothed, strongly silk-shining, light brownish-yellow to salmon-coloured with purple middle stripe, which is wide down and does not go up to the tip.

Spines

Strongly curved, rigid, never flexuose and noticeably thickened at the base. Radial spines 10-15, 15-40 mm long, curved inward and upward light at first greyish-brown to greyish-yellowish, tips darker, grey with age. Central spines about 4-7, bent upwards, 2-5 cm long.

Ribs

13-17, about 10-12 mm high,often curved, blunt, at the areole, laterally compressed, with clear chins under the areloes. Often tuching each other in the longitudinally.

Stem

Solitary, globose, later elongated, ca 9-12 cm thick, bluish-grey-green.

Fruits

About 20 mm long, 15 mm thick, reddish-green to almost red, with a lot of white woolly flakes. The seeds fall from the fruit through a round basal pore (hole) opening after the detachment of the fruit from the areola.

Areoles

7-10 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, white felt, 5-10 mm free distance.