Xerophyte

Habit

Mostly solitary, or slowly clumping dichotomously flat with ground.

Central Spines

2 to 6, very short, stout, chalky-white to pale brown with darker tips, becoming grey with age, to 3-4(-8) mm long.

Seeds

Brown.

Tubercles

Crowded, pyramidal, firm, arranged in numerous 13-21, very close-set spirals. The Axil is woolly with white wool especially in the floriferous portion.

Flowers

Diurnal, funnel-form, in a rings on the crown barely rising above the tubercles, in the growth of the previous year, pinkish-white with a darker pink midstripe, 1-2 cm long and diameter.

Blooming Season

Flowering period spring to summer.

Stem

Symmetrically globose to depressed globose and not rising much above ground level, dull grey-green or olive gray-green, 5-20 cm high, 5-10 (or more) cm in diameter, and may, with age, become rubberized at its base.

Radial Spines

Mostly hidden under white wool, usually on young stems only, 2 to 18, sometimes absent on mature areoles, white, bristle-like, to 1-3 mm long.

Fruits

Club-shaped, attractively deep red coloured to 10 mm long.

Areoles

Oval and woolly when young.