A tree, succulent, leafless, spiny. Flowering branches 4-angled, 1 1/2–3 1/2 in. square from angle to angle, constricted into lanceolate, ovate, elliptic or suborbicular segments, with the central solid part nearly 1 1/2 in. square in the only section seen and about as thick as the wing-like angles are broad; angles about 1/4 in. thick at the even (not sinuate-toothed) margins. Spine-shields separate, but sometimes crowded. Spines (sometimes rudimentary or absent on the flowering branches) 1/2–2 lin. long, stout, rigid, in pairs 4–9 lin. apart, not very diverging, dark brown, on triangular-obovate horny shields 2–3 lin. long and broad, shortly decurrent and obtusely rounded below the spines, sometimes, together with the flowering-eyes, crowded into a contiguous series, but not really united into a continuous horny margin to the angles. Flowering-eyes rather large, touching the spine-shields. Cymes crowded, 2–3 from each flowering-eye, on peduncles 1–1 1/2 lin. long, each with 3 involucres. Bracts 2–2 1/2 lin. long, suborbicular, concave, keeled on the back, toothed on the margin. Involucres sessile, 3–4 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, with 5–6 glands and 5–6 subrectangular fringed lobes; glands 1 1/2–2 1/4 lin. in their greatest diam., transverse, somewhat kidney-shaped, very unequally 2-lipped, entire with the margin of the large outer lip rounded, very obtuse or folded as if pinched together at the apex, often reflexed at the sides. Ovary sessile within the involucre, with 3 linear calyx-lobes 1–1 1/4 lin. long at its base, glabrous; styles only partly exserted from the involucre, 2 lin. long, free to the base, with thickened or subcapitate scarcely lobed stigmas. Capsule (Boissier) depressed-trigonous, 6–7 lin. in diam., with the hard woody cell-walls 2 lin. thick. Seeds 1 1/4 lin. in diam., subcompressed-globose, smooth Boissier).
