Monoecious shrub, fleshy, cactiform, spiny, glabrous, up to 0.6-1.2 m in height, highly branched from the base. Stems (2-4 cm diameter) erect, with 4-5(7) compressed angles, with rounded teeth or crenations and dark-grey callous and continuous margins. Spines (0.3-1(1.5) cm) arranged in pairs, widely divergent, often curved upwards, dark grey, born at continuous buds (sometimes it can have prickles, but little developed and deciduous). Inflorescences (3-5 mm, excluding the capsules) born in between the pair of spines, formed by 1-3 sessile cyathia and with broadly oval, obtuse and denticulate bracts. Cyathium (1.5-2 \u00d7 2.5-3 mm) with 5 nectaries and 5 lobes: glands are entire and transversely oblong, while the lobes are erect, broadly cuneate or transversely fimbriate. Ovary shortly pedicellate and glabrous, inserted in a narrowly trilobed calyx. Capsule (3-4 \u00d7 3.5-4.5 mm) subglobose, trilobulate, dark purple, inserted in the involucre. Seeds (1.5 \u00d7 1.3 mm), broadly ovoid, greyish, rugose, without caruncula.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-12147","species","type-species","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n