Plants 3-60-branched, ultimately forming somewhat open clumps. Stems mostly erect, cylindric or somewhat tapering distally, (5-)14-45(-70) × 3-9 cm; ribs 10-13, crests slightly undulate; areoles 6-10(-15) mm apart. Spines (8-)15-20 per areole, usually straight (curved and twisted in desert mountains and peninsular ranges of California), individual spines with broad zones of different colors: whitish or grayish, dull golden-yellow, or reddish brown to nearly black; radial spines 6-14 per areole, 8-20(-50) mm; central spines (2-)4-6(-9) per areole, divergent-porrect, 12-70 mm, abaxial central spine often fading whitish, flat to sharply angled (terete or nearly so in north-central Arizona). Flowers 6-9 × 5-9 cm; flower tube 13-30 × 10-30 mm; flower tube hairs 1 mm; inner tepals bright rose-pink to magenta, often varying from paler to darker in same population, proximally darker, 37-75 × (8-)14-25 mm, tips relatively thin, delicate; anthers yellow; nectar chamber 4-6 mm. Fruits red or orangish, 25-45 mm, pulp whitish be-coming infused with pink or red from the skin. 2n = 44.
Gravelly, sandy, or rocky soils of hillsides, washes, and canyons in the desert, plains, montane forest, juniper-pinyon woodland, chaparral, grass, and Great Basin scrub; at elevations from near sea level to 2,400 metres
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