Stems 2-3 ft. high, 1-2 in. thick, erect, branching, succulent, spiny, 9-11-angled, deep green, not glaucous; angles acute, with triangular grooves 1/4 in. deep between them, toothed; teeth small, 1 1/2-2 lin. apart, when young tipped with rudimentary recurved fleshy lanceolate acute leaves, usually 1-1 1/2 (but sometimes up to 4) lin. long, minutely ciliate and usually with a few hairs on the back; spines (modified peduncles) solitary, 2 1/2-5 lin. long, very spreading, needle-like, reddish-brown, becoming grey with age, usually with a few minute bracteoles, absent from some parts of the stem; peduncles (flower-bearing spines) clustered at the apex of the stems, usually 1 1/3-3 lin. long, sometimes up to 3/4 in. long, bearing 1 involucre and several small scale-like ovate dull-purple bracts; involucre unisexual, 2 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, most minutely puberulous on the upper part, dull purple, with 5 glands and 5 transverse toothed lobes woolly on their inner surface; glands 3/4-1 lin. in their greater diam., transversely oblong, minutely pitted, blackish-purple; ovary at first subsessile, finally exserted on a pedicel about as long as the involucre, globose, puberulous, dull purple; styles 1 1/2 lin. long, rather stout, united for half their length, with bifid spreading tips.
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