Stems usually leaning southward in adulthood, depressed-spheric to ovoid-cylindric, 19-100(-300) × (20-)36-65(-100) cm. Ribs 20-30(-40), shallowly notched immediately above each areole. Spines 16-25(-29) per areole, central spines and larger radial spines dull pink, gray, or tan; smallest spines per areole white, slender, often bristlelike, less than 1 mm diam., strongly contrasting with central spines; central spines (1-)2-4, often with several, subulate subcentral spines, rigid; principal central spine strongly hooked (very rarely straight), 36-120(-150) mm from curve of hook to base of spine, 1.5-4(-7) mm wide, strongly annulate, terete, ± angular, or flattened and often adaxially troughlike; other central spines subulate, slightly smaller. Flowers similar in color inside and out, 4-8.5 × 4-6.5 cm; inner tepals orange, red, or yellow with orange to red midstripes, or wholly yellow; stigma lobes yellow, orange, or red. Fruits ± readily dehiscent through basal pore, bright yellow, 35-60 × 18-40 mm, thick walled, leathery or fleshy, locule dry, hollow except for seeds. Seeds (1.9-)2-2.5(-2.9) mm, essentially smooth with very narrow and slightly raised reticulations. 2n = 22.
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A barrel cactus. They are round when young and grow taller with age. It can be 50 cm wide and 2 m tall. It has 20-30 ribs. The spines can be red or white or grey. There are 4 central spines and 12 or more smaller spines in a ring. The flowers are produced at the crown. The flowers can be yellow or orange. They are funnel shaped. The fruit are oval and green but turn yellow. They are 5 cm long.
Desert scrub, grasslands, south-facing slopes in lower edges of oak woodlands, flats, bajadas, mountainsides, usually growing in relatively deep soils of limestone and igneous origin; at elevations from 100-1,600 metres.
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It can tolerate temperatures to-7°C. It suits hardiness zones 9-11. Mt Cootha Botanical Gardens.
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