Plants branched or unbranched. Stems gray-green, obovoid, globose or depressed-globose, 2-6.5 × 1.5-5.5 cm; areoles circular, lanulose. Spines soft and corky or spongy, harder at tips, white to pale gray, all radial or with 1 central and sometimes 0-1 intermediate spines per areole; radial spines 3-7 per areole, 2-9 × 0.5-1 mm; intermediate spines curved upward, 8-21 × 0.7-1.5 mm; central spine, when present, 5-18 × 1 mm. Flowers 1-1.4 × 1.5-2.5 cm; scales and outer tepals minutely toothed or denticulate or entire and undulate; outer tepals with brown-purple midstripes, oblanceolate, 5-13 × 2-4.5 mm; inner tepals cream, yellow, or yellowish green, lanceolate, 6-12(-15) mm. Fruits green, drying reddish brown, turbinate, 6-11 × 5-8 mm. Seeds dark brown to black, 3 × 2 mm, papillate and rugose.

Plant: STEMS solitary or clustered, somewhat glaucous, mostly obovoid, globose or depressed-globose, 2.2-6 cm long, 2-5.5 cm in diameter, the stem apex at or to 3 cm above soil surface; tubercles 3-7 mm long, 4-6 mm broad; areoles circular

Leaves: SPINES white to pale gray, corky, not obscuring the stem; central spines 0-1, 0.8-2.1 cm long, 0.7-1.5 mm wide at the base, ascending, curved upward; radial spines 3-7, 2-9 mm long, 0.5-1 mm in width, recurved

Flowers: 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter; outer tepals with pink or green midstripes; inner tepals cream, yellow or yellowish-green, 0.5-1.3 cm long, about 3 mm broad, lanceolate; stigma yellow

Fruit: FRUITS green turning reddish-brown, 7-11 mm long, 6-11 mm in diameter, with a few scales on upper portion, top-shaped and basally constricted, dehiscing by a vertical slit. SEEDS dark brown to black, obliquely pyriform, papillate and rugose, ca. 3 mm long and 2 mm wide

Misc: Desertscrub and desert grasslands; Apr-May

REFERENCES: Heil, Kenneth D., and Mark J. Porter. 2001. Cactaceae. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. Volume 33(1)