very dwarf, succulent, leafless, spiny, 3–6 in. high; rootstock a tuber, with a short or elongated neck, producing many branches at the ground level; branches simple or branched, 2–6 in. long, 1/4– 1/2 in. in diam. when dried, 3–4-angled, glabrous; angles rather deeply sinuate-toothed, with the teeth 1/4– 1/2 in. apart and 1–2 lin. prominent, deltoid or the upper margins nearly truncate and the lower sloping; spine-shields 1–3 lin. long, narrow, variably decurrent on the lower margin of the tooth, but not forming a continuous margin to the angles and bearing a pair of diverging spines 2–4 lin. long, with or sometimes without 2 small prickles directed inwards at their base, at first light brown, finally grey; leaves rudimentary, 1 1/2–2 lin. long, sessile, lanceolate, very acute, recurved-spreading, glabrous, soon deciduous; flowering-eyes usually at or near the base of the stem-teeth each producing but one peduncle 1 1/2 lin. long, bearing 1 involucre and a pair of bracts at its apex, glabrous; bracts 3/4 lin. long, oblong, obtuse or slightly toothed at the apex, scale-like, green, glabrous; involucre 1 3/4–2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous, apparently green, with 5 glands and 5 transversely rectangular toothed lobes; glands nearly or quite contiguous, about 3/4 lin. in their greater diam., transverse, oblong or narrowly oblong, entire, apparently yellowish or green; capsule 2–2 1/3 lin. in diam., rather deeply tricoccous, glabrous, exserted on a recurved pedicel usually 1 1/2–3 lin. (in one case, perhaps abnormally, 4 lin.) beyond the involucre; styles united into a stout column 1/3 lin. long, with spreading bifid arms 1/3 lin. long; seeds about 1 1/4 lin. long, ellipsoid or subglobose, smooth, brown. null
