a very dwarf succulent tuberous-rooted perennial, spiny, leafless; tuber (or main stem) ovoid or oblong, 1 1/4 in. or more thick, producing many branches at its apex; branches radiately procumbent 1 1/2–3 in. long, 7–9 lin. in diam. including the teeth, 3–(4?)-angled, more or less twisted, “convex on the under side” (Haworth), glabrous, dark green, without paler markings; angles very deeply cut into rather slender widely spreading cylindric-conical tubercles 2–3 lin. long and 1 1/2–2 lin. thick at the base, each tipped with a pair of spines 1/2–1 1/2 lin. long, not very divergent, light brown; leaves rudimentary, minute, scale-like, roundish-cordate, soon deciduous; cymes solitary in the axils of the tubercles, subsessile, 1–3-flowered; bracts minute, scale-like, shorter than the involucre, oblong, obtuse, dark reddish; involucres about 2 lin. in diam., glabrous, green, suffused with purple under the 5 glands and apparently with purplish lobes; glands contiguous, 3/4–1 lin. in their greater diam., transversely oblong, green. null
