Succulent forming mat 100-500 mm diam., not rhizomatous. Stems 40-80(-120) mm long, 15-25 mm thick (excluding teeth), stout and often nearly cylindrical, shortly decumbent, green heavily marked with purple-brown to nearly entirely purple-brown; tubercles 5-8 mm long, conical, arranged loosely into 4 very broadly obtuse rows along stem ± without groove between rows, tapering into spreading conical acute tooth with pair of minute stipular denticles shortly below apex, both apex and denticles obsolescent with age. Inflorescence 1 per stem arising near base ± without peduncle, of 1(-2) flowers; pedicel 10-25 mm long, 3-4 mm thick, spreading with ascending apex, holding flower facing upwards close to ground, heavily streaked with purple-brown on green; sepals 6-8 mm long, 3 mm broad at base, ovate-acuminate. Corolla 70-110 mm diam., rotate to shallowly bowl-shaped; outside smooth, pale green dotted and streaked with reddish purple, usually with 5 slightly raised darker veins along lobes; inside cream to pale greenish yellow, covered (more densely towards base) with small papillate ± transverse ridges, papillae tipped with purple-red; tube shallowly bowl-shaped, towards base with broadly funnel-shaped annulus 8-11 mm tall with spreading (to recurved) thickened sometimes slightly pentagonal rim and walls 2-3 mm thick, annulus papillate as inside of corolla but inside more darkly coloured, uniformly dark purple in ring at base around corona and there densely covered with short stiff acute erect purple bristles; lobes 28-32 mm long, 14-20 mm broad at base, ovate-deltate, acuminate, spreading to strongly reflexed, with dense row of vibratile clavate white cilia 3-4 mm long along margins. Corona ±2.5 mm tall, 4.5 mm broad, raised very slightly above base of tube on stout obtusely pentagonal heavily purple-blotched stipe, cream to pale yellow sparsely dotted with purple mainly towards margins; outer lobes ±0.7-2.0 mm long, 2.0-2.5 mm broad, subquadrate, irregularly obtuse to emarginate or sometimes bidentate, pale yellow sparsely dotted with purple, ascending-spreading, usually pressed against sides of narrow tube formed by base of annulus; inner lobes 0.6-1.0 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers but shorter than them, ± ovate, acute, somewhat gibbous on rear.
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Mat-forming, glabrous succulent, up to 80 x 500 mm, stems leafless, purple-mottled, 4-angled, tuberculate, up to 25 mm diam. Flower solitary near base of stem, pedicel 10-25 mm long. Corolla rotate, with funnel-shaped annulus 8-11 mm tall around corona, 70-110 mm diam., inside densely rugulose and glabrous, cream, tube shallow, lobes spreading, deltate, 28-32 x 14-20 mm, with white marginal cilia. Corona cream, outer lobes subquadrate, spreading, up to 2 mm long, inner adpressed to anthers, but shorter than them, without a dorsal horn.
Leafless succulent forming mats to 50 cm diam., stems 15-25 mm diam. (excluding teeth), mottled with purple-brown on green, with conical tubercles arranged loosely into 4 rows; sap clear. Flowers campanulate, 70-110 mm diam., cream-coloured, with funnel-shaped annulus 8-11 mm long.
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