Small succulent forming dense clump 150-300 mm diam. Stems 40-120 mm long, 8-12 mm thick, erect, shortly pubescent, green suffused with purple; tubercles 2-3 mm long, joined into 4 obtuse angles along stem, stem ± square in cross-section; leaf-rudiments ±1.5 mm long. Inflorescences pubescent, 1-4 per stem randomly distributed along it, each with 1-5 flowers developing in gradual succession on stout short peduncle <5 mm long with deltoid bracts 1-2 mm long; pedicel 20-120 mm long, ±1.5 mm thick, purplish, erect holding flower facing upwards near or above apices of stems; sepals 1.5-3.0 mm long, 1.5 mm broad at base, deltoid, acute, purplish. Corolla 9-15 mm diam. (15-20 mm when fully spread out), ± turban-shaped; outside pale pinkish dull green, with 3 raised darker longitudinal veins running down each lobe to sepals; inside ± smooth, dull brownish green to purplish with narrow transverse pale green to yellow stripes, covered from base of tube to tips of lobes (somewhat sparser inside tube) with translucent-white adpressed clavate hairs up to 1 mm long pointing towards apices of lobes sometimes interspersed with fine hairs towards tips of lobes; tube ±1.5 mm deep, shallowly bowl-shaped, pentagonal, sometimes corolla thickened around mouth; lobes 5-6 mm long, 3.5-5.0 mm broad at base, strongly recurved and rolled back under corolla, ovate-deltate, slightly convex above. Corona ±4.5 mm tall, ±7 mm broad, raised on yellow to reddish obtusely pentagonal stipe 1 mm tall, glabrous; outer lobes 2-3 mm long, spreading around mouth of tube with somewhat recurved apex, oblong to rectangular or lanceolate, truncate to emarginate or acute, slightly channelled down upper surface, yellow suffused with purple especially towards tips to wholly purple; inner lobes (2.5-)3.0-3.5 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers and usually much exceeding them to become erect and then recurved, slender, dorsiventrally flattened becoming terete above, with slightly raised dorsal ridge towards base but without wing.
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Like S. arenosa but flowers facing upwards on erect pedicels 20-120 mm long, corolla 9-15 mm diam., with lobes tightly folded back behind corolla, inside covered with adpressed hairs, lobes 5-6 mm long, inner corona lobes long and slender, with a small dorsal ridge.
Like S. cedrimontana but stems 8-12 mm diam. Flowers 9-15 mm diam., on erect pedicels 20-120 mm long, usually button-like with strongly recurved lobes, with adpressed, often dense, transparent-white, clavate hairs especially towards centre and margins.
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