Flora of North America species comparison

0–2(–3) per areole, sparsely distributed along stem, usually deflexed, pale yellow or red-brown aging black, stout, the longest 0.8–3.5(–5) cm;

sheaths loose fitting, yellowish brown.

0–5 per areole, usually in distal areoles or sometimes absent or nearly so, tan to red-brown to deep purple, aging gray;

major abaxial spines 0–1(–2), the longest spine spreading, (1.5–)2.5–6 cm;

adaxial spines usually reflexed, short to ± 1 cm;

sheaths baggy.

in adaxial tuft and marginal, encircling areole, pale yellow.

in subcircular to linear adaxial tuft, yellow to tan to brown, to 2 mm.

inner tepals green- or orange-bronze, spatulate, 17–20 mm, apiculate;

filaments dark green-bronze;

anthers yellow;

style whitish basally to light orange apically;

stigma lobes very pale green.

inner tepals bronze-red ± suffused rose, with mid stripes darker, ovate, 6–13 mm, acute-apiculate to attenuate;

filaments greenish;

anthers yellow;

style whitish or blushed with rose-pink or light green;

stigma lobes whitish.

green, becoming yellowish apically, sometimes tinged red to purplish at areoles, commonly sterile, then narrow, tuberculate, to 2.5 cm, fertile ones stipitate, obconic, 20–50 × 15–35 mm, fleshy, becoming smooth, spineless;

umbilicus 3–4 mm deep;

areoles 15–17(–34).

maturing tan, ellipsoid to stipitate-ellipsoid, 15–30 × 10–15 mm, dry at maturity, tuberculate, developing increasingly burlike, with many bristlelike spines;

areoles (32–)40–66, evenly spaced, woolly.

pale yellow, angularly circular to oblong, thick, 3–5 mm diam., lumpy;

girdle smooth, broad, not protruding.

pale yellow to tan-gray, angular to squarish in outline, warped, 4–4.5 × 3.5–4 mm, sides irregularly concave-convex;

girdle smooth.

= 66.

= 22, 44.