diœcious; stems simple or slightly branching at the base, perhaps several from the same root, succulent, leafless, spiny or nearly spineless, erect, 1–2 ft. high, 3–4 in. thick, when very young 7-angled, with age developing 10–20 angles, glabrous, green and slightly glaucous on the young growth in wild plants, not glaucous when cultivated under glass, becoming grey with age; angles vertical or slightly spiral, acute, slightly crenulate, often wavy, separated by acute furrows about 2/3 in. deep; leaves rudimentary, 1/2–1 1/2 lin. long, oblong-lanceolate or deltoid-lanceolate, acuminate, rigid and hard, soon deciduous, dark reddish-brown or blackish; spines (modified peduncles) solitary or 2–3 from a flowering-eye, scattered along the angles, 2–4 lin. long, bearing a few minute scattered bracts, dark purple or blackish-brown, becoming grey; flowers arising at and near the apex of the stems, often one on each side and at the base of a previously formed spine; peduncles 1–2 lin. long, bearing 1 involucre and several bracts, dull purple; upper bracts 1 1/2–2 1/4 lin. long, 1–2 lin. broad, obovate, obtusely rounded at the apex, glabrous above, minutely puberulous beneath, minutely ciliate; lower bracts much smaller and oblong; involucre unisexual, 2 1/2–3 1/2 lin. in diam. and 1 1/2 lin. deep, cup-shaped, nearly or quite glabrous outside, dark purple, with 5 glands and 5 rounded minutely toothed lobes; glands not quite contiguous; slightly sloping outwards, 1–1 3/4 lin. in their greater diam., transversely elliptic or elliptic-oblong, dark purple; capsule 2 1/2–3 lin. in diam., globose or very slightly 3-lobed as seen from above, velvety-pubescent, erect, exserted on a pedicel not exceeding the involucre; styles united into a column about 1/2 lin. long, with spreading arms of the same length, minutely bifid at the tips; seeds 1 1/2 lin. long, ovoid, acute at one end, obscurely 4-angled, smooth, brown. null
